I returned to USA this past Monday 12/7/2015 for the holidays. My flight American 755 had over 150 empty seats. At check-in at Paris CDG the girl was telling me about how slow things were and actually offered to assign me 2 seats! I never heard tell of being assigned 2 seats.

I would expect reduced fares to Paris real soon. CDG Terminal 2 had very few travelers Monday and PHL was much the same in the afternoon when I arrived.

Has anyone else seen planes to and from paris that empty?

It's human nature to seek a pattern: "if I avoid Paris, I'll be safe". So this doesn't surprise me. If only it were that simple.

Unless the airlines are contractually obligated to provide certain minimum number of flights, I suspect they would rather want to cancel flights without network resource allocation or competitive issues instead of lowering the fares. The carriers have considerable latitudes built into the T&C that came with the ticket purchase to allow re-routing existing passengers to more circuitous routes.

Flew to CDG on 11/19 on UA and plane was half empty. FAs said flights had been like that. Flew to IAD from CDG yesterday and it was ¾ full. Fares to Paris from IAD have been in the $700 - $800 range since late this summer. I'd be surprised if they dropped much more. Plus my observation was as of this past weekend, things were picking up in Paris. But who knows with the airlines. There were ads for apt rentals that had been cancelled available for "special rates."

It had lost of empty seats <B>coming home</B>, right?

Flew to Paris October 2001 (a month after 9/11) with similar results...plane at least half empty. My wife and I each had an entire row in the center of an A330 (2-4-2 arrangement) in addition to our assigned two seats on the side...both directions.

ssander

<<Unless the airlines are contractually obligated to provide certain minimum number of flights, I suspect they would rather want to cancel flights >>

It's not that easy to cancel, due to things like cargo, aircraft & crew position for next flight, travellers with onward connections etc. I'm not saying it can't happen, but it would depend on alot of other factors plus there are regulations governing this.