{"id":38878,"date":"2019-04-06T11:22:29","date_gmt":"2019-04-06T11:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38878"},"modified":"2019-04-06T11:22:29","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T11:22:29","slug":"this-man-was-the-only-passenger-on-a-boeing-737","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38878","title":{"rendered":"This man was the only passenger on a Boeing 737"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n(CNN) \u2014 <\/cite>When Skirmantas Strimaitis booked a one-way ticket to northern Italy<\/a> he never imagined he’d be the only passenger on board.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

But the Lithuanian national, who was flying from Vilnius to Bergamo for a skiing trip on March 16, was in for a shock when he discovered he had the entire Boeing 737-800 to himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

His only companions on board the plane, which has a seating capacity of 189, were two pilots and five crew members.<\/span><\/p>\n

Strimaitis suspected something was amiss when he went to check in at Lithuania’s Vilnius International Airport and was told the crew were waiting for him.<\/span><\/p>\n

After asking why, as he was by no means late, Strimaitis was informed that he was the sole passenger on board.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tour operator Novaturas confirmed to CNN Travel they chartered a flight from Bergamo to Vilnius for a group of clients that day.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to avoid the aircraft coming back empty, one-way tickets were put on sale for the return trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unique experience<\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"Skirmantas<\/div>\n

Strimaitis is outnumbered by cabin crew in this shot. <\/p>\n

Courtesy Skirmantas Strimaitis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

However, Strimaitis was the only person to buy one. Leading to what he describes as a “unique and unreal” experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The crew seemed quite confused at first,” he tells CNN Travel. “Maybe it was a new experience for them as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I was provided with a personal pre-flight safety demonstration. Then I just enjoyed the flight by taking selfies and writing. To have silence on a plane was very unusual. I was smiling all day.”<\/span><\/p>\n

He shared a selfie of himself on board the deserted plane during the trip, which lasted around two hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Strimaitis says the pilot referred to him as “Mr Passenger” while speaking over the tannoy after the plane landed at Orio al Serio International Airport in Bergamo. <\/span><\/p>\n

“The crew said how nice it was to have me on the board,” he explains. “I’m sure it was an easy job for them.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, this isn’t the first case of a passenger inadvertently getting the private plane experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Karon Grieve<\/a> was the only passenger on board a Jet2 airlines flight from Glasgow to Crete in 2017. The Scottish author tweeted an image of her experience, saying she “felt like a VIP.”<\/span><\/div>\n

Meanwhile last year, Beth VerSteeg flew from New York to Washington, D.C. on board a more or less empty aircraft after the unnamed airline apparently mistakenly booked her on a flight intended for staff only.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(CNN) \u2014 When Skirmantas Strimaitis booked a one-way ticket to northern Italy he never imagined he’d be the only passenger on board. But the Lithuanian national, who was flying from Vilnius to Bergamo for a skiing trip on March 16, was in for a shock when he discovered he had the entire Boeing 737-800 to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}