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American Airlines's luxury transatlantic B777 Flight AA90; flying 5 passengers only!

iSamurai

iSamurai

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 9, 2007
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http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/03/06/airline.hodson/index.html?eref=rss_latest

  • Story Highlights
  • Environmental groups angry with American Airlines after five-passenger flight
  • The passengers were unable to be rebooked after flight delayed by 14 hours
  • AA says canceling flight would have left many more stranded in London next day
  • The transatlantic flight did carry a full cargo load, according to the airline
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wohoo, imagine you're on this flight, they flew 5 passengers instead of 245 - this is so cool :eek::eek::eek::eek: as you'll probably get to sit in first class and 1 flight attendant per passenger. it would be quite special...

but the environmental guys are saying there carbon footprint were too big per passenger... this is kinda luxurious!

the last time I was on an empty plane was on 01 January, where there's like about 30 people flying JAA's B767.
 
I've been on a domestic US flight and there were 3 other passengers. It wasn't a small aircraft either. It was from Newark to Chicago (or the other way).
 
iSamurai said:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/03/06/airline.hodson/index.html?eref=rss_latest



wohoo, imagine you're on this flight, they flew 5 passengers instead of 245 - this is so cool :eek::eek::eek::eek: as you'll probably get to sit in first class and 1 flight attendant per passenger. it would be quite special...

but the environmental guys are saying there carbon footprint were too big per passenger... this is kinda luxurious!

the last time I was on an empty plane was on 01 January, where there's like about 30 people flying JAA's B767.
Click to expand...

Hey, I'm all for maintaining a small footprint, though what does everyone expect them to do? Sure, they could have held them over for a couple more days, but what about the backlog all that cargo & other passengers would cause. It probably would have wound up as an extra flight anyways. As long as they don't make a habit out of it, it should be excused this time around.
 
Lucky passengers. Footprint? Nonsense. Those 777s are very nice planes. I bet you could sit in first class, giant. :) Five people? I doubt they even put up the curtain.
 
Because of a mechanical malfunction, AA flight 90 was 14 hours late leaving Chicago's O'Hare airport on February 8. Though most passengers made other arrangements to London, five lucky passengers unable to be rebooked made the 6,400 kilometer (4,000 mile) flight in business class, with two crew members per passenger.

American Airlines said it chose to continue with the flight because of the full load of passengers waiting at London's Heathrow airport to return to the United States.
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IMO, that says it all. There was a valid business reason to fly that mostly empty plane to London (200+ people there needing it to fly back to the US), and there was even a valid reason why the plane was empty in the first place (14 hour mechanical delay, where most of the passengers rebooked for a sooner flight). Plus it carried a full cargo load. Ugh. Nothing irresponsible at all.
 
obeygiant said:
There is no way they'd let you sit in first or business if you didn't pay for the ticket.
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oh I bet you they will. even if they get economy food. there WILL still be spare food to fill the hungry stomachs. they're running at a loss already, so they won't care for the guys to warm up the first class seats.

KingYaba said:
Lucky passengers. Footprint? Nonsense. Those 777s are very nice planes. I bet you could sit in first class, giant. :) Five people? I doubt they even put up the curtain.
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777s are indeed very nice planes. a trivia: it's actually wider than the 787. if it's only 5 people, I suppose it would be more casual for the crew perhaps.

now this time imagine an airline flies an A380 with 5 passengers.
 
what would they of rather that they few the plain empty because that is what AA would of done. They needed a plane over there to keep things going.
 
The empty plan (5 passengers) reminds me of a flight from Japan to Hawaii some years ago.

A small group of us were traveling to Hawaii for an inspection. There were just a few other passengers on the 747, probably less than 20 total. We were surprised and thought wow this will be nice.

Then about 10 minutes before the flight (before the 911 days obviously) the entire plane was filled up with couples who had just been married and were heading to Hawaii for their honeymoons. That plane was packed. Not an empty seat was to be had.
 
Kamera RAWr said:
Judging from the article, this is one where the environmentalists need to quit their whining :p
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I agree. I hate waste, but this isn't something I'd jump all over. If they carried a full cargo load, and did it to spare even more trouble the next day, then I can sort of understand their desperation. It's not like they WANTED to fly to London with an empty passenger section.
 
AA is hardly to blame; they plane would've flown over empty regardless.


Talk about a "Luxury Liner"! (aviation geeks will know what I'm talking about...)

Those lucky 5 passengers, a 777 all to themselves! I heard they all got complimentary upgrades to business class; I would love to have been one of them.
 
Two flight attendants per passenger? Wow, if there was a chance I'd be able to join the Mile High club, that would have been it! There would be plenty of opportunity on a plane of that size.
 
JohnNotBeatle said:
You haven't seen AA's senior int'l FA's, have you? Or maybe you have...
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Haha, so true.

Also remember that the aircraft was carrying a full load of cargo as well as keeping American's system running (allowing return from LHR and the aircraft to continue in the system). I see no problem in what was done here. The same thing happened a few years ago with Lufthansa, but luckily its news didn't get out to the green freaks.
 
Wait... big plane, just a few select passengers... I've heard this before and nobody seemed to give a damn about "carbon footprint".

Oh yeah:
af1_d4c-122582-1_375X300.jpg
 
It's not unusual for me to be on a jetBlue Airbus plane to Denver with no more than 20 people. The plane seats about 120. Airlines have no choice, planes need to be at their destination for the next flight.
 
I was on the last step of a late flight from Miami to Jax quite a few years ago, and was quite surprised to find only one other person left at the end (everyone else got off at Tampa).
 
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