There are a lot of passengers stuck in the Mideast with the current hostilities with Iran – the U.S. and Israel attacking, and then Iran lashing out at non-combatant neighbor states, including civil infrastructure like airports. There are few flights operating in the region still.
On the other hand, there aren’t many passengers trying to get to places like Dubai and Doha. You’ll find hotel prices are very low in both cities!
So passengers reported an Emirates Frankfurt to Dubai flight the world’s largest passenger jet that was approximately 90% empty with just “50 passengers total” – and the whole swanky first class cabin to themselves.
The description here is ‘business class’ but this is the Emirates Airbus A380 first class cabin of suites.
passenger flying Emirates FRA-DXB today reported their A380 had roughly 50 passengers total…. with the entire Business Class cabin to themselves. They said the airport and plane felt deserted because of the ongoing German pilot strike plus the current Middle East situation pic.twitter.com/a0IHN4inUd
— Fahad Naim (@Fahadnaimb) March 13, 2026
There are two shower spas dedicated to this cabin, as well. Normally you’d want to reserve a time to take your onboard shower. This would not have been necessary!
Though the video highlights an empty first class cabin, with just about 50 passengers on a plane that holds 468 the business class cabin would have been pretty light, too.
Empty planes and premium cabins to yourself isn’t even unique right now. Here’s a Qatar Airways flight where passengers have the entire business class cabin to themselves, as well. The part of the story about one pilot and one flight attendant, however, would… not be accurate.
A Qatar resident posted today about QR893 Beijing Daxing–Doha: a 300+ seat plane with only ~20+ passengers total (2 in Business), one captain and one cabin crew. Passenger wrote “Life is as usual, just fewer people around”.. reassuring that things are still running normally… pic.twitter.com/30xBDlzOiz
— Fahad Naim (@Fahadnaimb) March 13, 2026
An interesting contrast is that when hostilities break out and flights are cancelled to Israel, citizens from there flock home, but Doha and the U.A.E. have not retaliated against Iran – they are not at war – and Israelis often travel back to join the fight protecting their country.
When I was young in the early 1980s I flew as one of only three passengers from New York LaGuardia to Cincinnati after a long series of delays. Everyone else rebooked. On January 1, 2000 there were just a handful of us flying Los Angeles to Washington Dulles on a United 777. It was “Y2K” and everyone else was scared to fly. And I’ve had first class cabins to myself on ANA, Thai, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Korean Air, Asiana, Emirates, Qatar and more. But I’ve never had a whole plane to myself.
I’ve also been fortunate enough to have first class cabins to myself on ANA, Asiana, THAI, Lufthansa, and more.. but that was just luck, not geopolitical instability!
Here’s a man who had his own private jet after all the rest of the American Airlines customers bailed for ohter flights during a delay. This man was the only passenger on a 7-hour Etihad flight and all of the announcements addressed him by name. And this one videotaped the best day of his life as the only passenger on a Delta flight.
These two passengers had business class all to themselves on a long haul flight so they decided to have dinner together and see what might come of it? They began with champagne… These stories were all under better circumstances.
