Man gets private jet experience as only passenger on Abu Dhabi-Singapore flight
Passenger describes experience as ‘surreal’
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Your support makes all the difference.One lucky man got the private jet experience on a commercial flight after discovering he was the only passenger onboard.
Alex Svanevik, a Norwegian businessman, was the sole traveller on an Etihad service from Abu Dhabi to Singapore on 28 September.
Of the 336 seats onboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner used to operate the flight, 335 were empty.
Svanevik described the experience as “100 per cent true and 120 per cent surreal”, sharing video of the totally vacant cabin on social media.
He was even welcomed personally to Singapore by the crew when the plane touched down at Changi airport.
In the video, a flight attendant can be heard saying over the tannoy: “Good morning Mr Alexander and welcome to Singapore.”
He received enjoyed other personal touches as well.
“I'm alone on my flight to Singapore,” he tweeted.
“The pilot makes all announcements starting with ‘Mr Alexander’.”
Svanevik was at pains to point out that he was “not single-handedly f***ing up the planet” because the crew told him “the plane would have flown anyway”.
This is likely because the aircraft would have a return leg operating from Singapore.
He is not the first person to find himself flying solo.
In April 2019, a man got a “one in a lifetime experience” when he turned up for a flight to discover he was the only passenger.
Skirmantas Strimaitis was flying from Lithuanian capital Vilnius to Bergamo, a city in northern Italy, when he got a taste of the private jet lifestyle.
Strimaitis got the entire aircraft – a Boeing 737-800 that normally seats 188 travellers – to himself during his journey to Italy for a skiing holiday on 16 March.
The situation came about after Novaturas, a travel agency, chartered a plane to fly a group home from Italy to Lithuania.
To avoid flying the outbound leg with an empty aircraft, the agency offered one-way tickets to Bergamo – and only one was sold.
Other than Strimaitis, the only people on board were two pilots and five crew members.
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