One passenger said their flight was ‘totally empty, it was unsettling’
TikTok user Alishba.s shares a video of empty seats on an Emirates flight(Image: TikTok/ @Alishba.s)
Emirates passengers have shared footage of near-empty flights as the conflict in the Middle East continues to impact air travel.
When the war broke out two weeks ago air travel in the region ground to a halt, imapcting flights across the globe. Since then many airlines have resumed limited operations within the region, including Emirates and the airline has said that intends to return to a full flight schedule in the coming weeks.
Passengers due to travel between February 28 until and including March 31 have the option to rebook on an alternate flight for travel on or before April 30. Or they can request a refund.
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However some have decided to go ahead with the flights, whether they are a resident of the UAE and are returning home to Dubai, or are travelling between the UK and connecting onwards to destinations such as Australia. It’s resulted in passengers experiencing eerie ‘ghost’ flights with hardly any other passengers on board.
TikTok user @jade.here described her flight as ‘unsettling’ (Image: TikTok / @jade.here)
One TikTok user, Alishaba.s, who is based in both Dubai and London, shared a video of her flight with the caption: “Travelling to Dubai and barely anyone is on the flight rn [right now]”. She added: “Never saw a Dubai flight this empty literally trusted Emirates with our lives rn!! [right now]”.
The video, which has amassed more than 360,000 views, shows rows of empty seats on the plane. In the comments people asked what the experience was like and other passengers commented.
One user, Jamie Scott, wrote: “I flew yesterday from Manchester. Flight was quiet but I was absolutely fine. I had a connection in Dubai airport it was fine.” However others commented that they wouldn’t take the risk; Rachel Stephenson wrote: “I wouldn’t go there now.”
In another video TikTok user @ jade.here shared a video of her empty flight, which she captioned as “so eerie” adding “totally empty, unsettling. I’ve never seen an empty Emirates flight.”
TikTok user @tommcgarry0 shared a video of him making the most of his empty row of seats (Image: TikTok / @tommcgarry0)
Those who have chosen to fly have the added benefit of enjoying more space to themselves. Tom McGarry posted a video on TikTok of him enjoying a whole row of economy seats to himself. He explained that he flew from the UK to Dubai and Dubai to Australia and both flights were the same.
He captioned the video: “When your £700 17 hour economy flight is just as good as an 8k first class ticket because no one dares to fly with Emirates yet.”
In the comments he wrote: “It was perfect. It was empty 7 hours to Dubai and then Dubai to Perth everyone had their own row of three seats.”
The Manchester Evening News contacted Emirates about repatriation flights.
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