Rare treat! The first 747-400 made for Northwest Airlines flies Minneapolis to Atlanta route.

[Atlwarrior]

A bit of history today and rare treat for those who flew on the Atlanta to Minneapolis domestic route on Nov 30. The people in the video have no idea how special this was.

Captain Steve talks about the ATL-MSP-ATL-MSP-ATL Flights on November 30th, 2014 - YouTube

[PacoMartin]

I was looking at BTS data to see how often it happens that Delta puts a 747 on an domestic flight. The most recent month of BTS data (April 2014) showed four times. So it is uncommon, but not super rare.

What I thought was interesting was that in only one case was the plane exceptionally full of passengers so that it would be difficult to carry them in a normal single aisle jet. My theory is that they must make decisions to reposition airframes, and they carry some passengers rather than fly empty.

I think it would be fun to ride a 747 from DC to NYC with only 64 passengers. Since it is only 43 minutes of airtime, they should let everyone sit up in business class.

64 Washington, DC - New York, NY
130 Detroit, MI - Minneapolis, MN
164 Minneapolis, MN - Detroit, MI
292 Atlanta, GA- Detroit, MI

[DMenscha]

I got to fly on a 747 from MSP to SEA back in the 80's. It was nice avoiding all the t-storms along the way.

[emcee squared]

I'm starting to regret not hopping on from ATL Sunday morning.

[dkf747]

I once rode on a Sun Country DC-10 between DTW and MSP with less than 10 passengers on board. I'd love to do that on a 747.

[emcee squared]

Originally Posted by dkf747

I once rode on a Sun Country DC-10 between DTW and MSP with less than 10 passengers on board. I'd love to do that on a 747.

This 747 was pretty full-up. Though it would be cool and rather strange to be on such a large and empty aircraft.

[Alaskan Mutt]

Originally Posted by dkf747

I once rode on a Sun Country DC-10 between DTW and MSP with less than 10 passengers on board. I'd love to do that on a 747.

Several years ago British Airways flew an Olympic charter between South Korea and London. One day the flight broke down in South Korea. British rebooked all of their passengers on other airlines to get them home. That is all but one. An elderly lady said she was in no hurry and would wait for the plane to be fixed. She was the only passenger on the entire 747.

[Neosec]

Originally Posted by Alaskan Mutt

Several years ago British Airways flew an Olympic charter between South Korea and London. One day the flight broke down in South Korea. British rebooked all of their passengers on other airlines to get them home. That is all but one. An elderly lady said she was in no hurry and would wait for the plane to be fixed. She was the only passenger on the entire 747.

I do hope they gave her the upper deck!

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by Neosec

I do hope they gave her the upper deck!

She probably felt young again running up and down the stairs between decks.

[PacoMartin]

Just looking at the data from April, Delta uses their fleet of 13 B747's to fly on six routes. These flights (354 in one month) have an average of 55 empty seats.

1. Atlanta, GA -Tokyo, Japan : 6850 miles
2. Detroit, MI - Nagoya, Japan : 6552 miles
3. Detroit, MI - Seoul, South Korea : 6636 miles
4. Los Angeles, CA - Tokyo, Japan : 5451 miles
5. New York, NY - Tokyo, Japan : 6744 miles
6. New York, NY - Tel Aviv, Israel : 5678 miles

But they have to re-position the planes to cycle them in for service. They are often 1/3 to 1/2 empty on these flights. The extreme was 64 passengers on the 43 minute flight.

Delta
48 flat bed seats with 82" pitch
42 standard seats with 3" extra legroom
31 rows of seat in economy

At the very least they should give people the extra legroom.