Is it possible for a commercial airliner to depart without any passengers and cabin crew on board? Would the aircraft be safe to fly and will the airline lose business?
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Ferry flight and âpositioningâ flights are common - often with only the flight crew onboard, however sometimes staff/crew members may also be onboard, to position themselves for further flights or just to get from A to B.
Airlines usually use discreet and large Flight Numbers for these flights, eg AA9768.
For more information, this Wikipedia article is a good start ;)
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Wow, the cabin crew can sleep in first class for such flights! No need to serve passengers.
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Yeah - exactly, although I donât know whether theyâre allowed to!
Hereâs an example I found on FlightRadar 24, note the random routes for this flight number.
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Usually the âferry flightsâ arenât anywhere near long enough to get any rest/sleep. An example would be, KLGA-KJFK or KTPA-KMCO.
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Having picked up aircraft from Seattle and Singapore for ferry flights back to Europe there are plenty of âlongâ ferry flights available!
Itâs not an issue. For these flights we, as flight crew, have to do a security check throughout the entire cabin, isolate the galleys we wonât be using, ensure the toilet doors are fully closed (smoke alarms), wedge the flight deck door open and arm the front doors for emergency egress.
I quite enjoy ferry flights, especially from Seattle as the catering department at Boeing often load up some great food!!!
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They are pretty common, and I believe that a plane will depart even if there are a low amount of pax on board. They still need to keep to a schedule.
Hawaiian ferries itâs 717s to the mainland by removing seats and adding fuel tanks
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miami to melbourne ???/
Sometimes folks get lucky and happen to be the only passenger on a ferry flight, such as the man in the article below!
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A good friend of mine is a FA for American, she used to share funny photos and clips of their ferry flights. The crew knows how to relax and make the most of it for sure đ
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I bet, that sounds like a fun time, I wonder what it is like for pilots?
Yes, they can fly the plane with no passengers. This is called Ferrying. This is used to return an aircraft to another location while not in service for things such as repairs.
Once I flew on a 737 with only 10 people.
Melbourne, Florida. A very short flight, not ULH
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ohoh, thanks, lol
All of the videos and pics that I saw from my friend were from the passenger cabin, Iâll bet the pilotâs position in the ferry flight remains about the same. Safety first, but at least no cabin announcements or temperature complaints đ
On these ferry flights I guess there are no CC? But why wedge the cockpit door open? ( apart from the ease of grabbing a meal or coffee from the Fwd Galley?)
Are these flights bid for in the normal turn of trips or are they crewed in a different way?
Most of them are rostered in the normal rostering system. Although some are crewed by crews on the reserve roster for the month.
You keep the cockpit door open in order to be able to hear any chimes from the ACP (attendant control panel) at Door 1L and also to be able to see the cabin easily in the event of smoke or alarms.
Also, no need to have it closed when there is only the flight crew on board, makes it much easier to get at the coffee maker!!!
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I watched this video a little while ago; it shows that planes do sometimes fly empty.
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