An English man traveling from Portugal to Belfast was shocked to discover that he was the only passenger on the flight. 

Paul Wilkinson, 65, said he was treated like a "king" after arriving at the departure gate for his Jet2 flight from Faro to Belfast on March 30 and discovering that he would be the only passenger on the flight. 

Initially panicking about the lack of passengers at the gate, Wilkinson asked staff if there had been a problem with his flight. 

However, they told him that he would be the only passenger on board and called him a "VIP guest". 

"I thought they were having a laugh," Wilkinson told the South West News Service. 

"I thought I was early or late. I kept thinking they were going to say my flight had been canceled." 

He said staff referred to him as "King Paul" throughout his flight to Belfast, adding that he treated the flight as if it was his own private jet. 

Wilkinson explained that he was allowed to pick whatever seat he wanted - picking one with extra legroom in the front row - and that he got to meet the pilot before the plane left for Belfast. 

"I think it was a total one-off. They’d taken holidaymakers to Portugal and there was no one to come back and it was pure luck that I needed to go to Belfast.

"Someone told me a private jet is in the region of £28,000 [$34,954] and it’ll probably never happen again." 

Wilkinson, a father of three, had been on a golfing vacation in Portugal and had to take a last-minute trip to Belfast to attend a funeral. 

When he arrived in Belfast, staff working at passport control couldn't believe that he was the only person on the flight.