When Steven Schneider got to his departure gate at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans Airport on Tuesday, he was positive there was something wrong.
He was the only passenger there.
“I was so nervous,” Schneider told WSB-TV. “I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I missed my flight!”
No, he hadn't missed it — and then he got even more surprising news.
A Delta flight attendant at the gate asked Schneider if he’d prefer to return home to Atlanta the next day since he was the only passenger on Tuesday's Flight 2426.
Turns out other passengers took earlier flights or postponed their trips for the next day since the original flight was delayed a few times, the station said. Schneider said Delta attempted to alert him about the situation but had the wrong contact number.
And Schneider said he chose to take Tuesday's flight — and while the MD-90 seats about 160 passengers, for this trip it would be carrying just one.
“At first I felt really bad, because I didn’t want the plane to only make the trip because of me,” he told WSB. “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.”
And how did the Lawrenceville, Georgia, man describe his experience?
“It was so cool,” Schneider told the station. “One of the flight attendants told me she hadn’t seen something like this in the 17 years she was here. Everyone was just so nice.”
WSB received the following statement from Delta on the flight:
We're glad this customer enjoyed a somewhat rare solo experience. Other customers were accommodated on an earlier departure. 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.
