It’s not every day that the average traveler has an entire row of seats to take over, much less an entire plane. But one Delta passenger flying home this week got to experience the sweet sensation of being the only person on his flight when his fellow travelers opted to take other flights.

Everything worked out perfectly for the Atlanta man, despite his initial worries when he showed up to an empty gate area at the airport in New Orleans earlier this week.

“I was so nervous,” he told WSB-TV. “I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I missed my flight!”

A Delta staffer asked him if he’d like to travel home the next day instead, because he was the only passenger on the flight. As it turns out, other passengers had rescheduled after the original flight had been delayed a few times.

He decided to keep his original reservation, thereby getting essentially a private plane ride home in an aircraft that usually seats about 160 people.

“At first I felt really bad, because I didn’t want the plane to only make the trip because of me,” he said. “But after talking to a flight attendant at the gate, she said the plane needed to go back to Atlanta anyway. She called this an empty leg flight.”

“We’re glad this customer enjoyed a somewhat rare solo experience. Other customers were accommodated on an earlier departure,” Delta said in a statement. “The reason we operated the flight was so this customer could have that airplane positioned back in Atlanta so it could be in place for a departure the next day.”

We’ve seen this happen before — well, almost: another delayed Delta flight took off last year with just two passengers on board.

Atlanta man boards flight, discovers ‘I am the only person on this plane’ [WSB-TV]

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