SEATTLE – Environmentalists are having a field day with American Airlines for making a trans-Atlantic flight with only five people on board, using some 22,000 gallons of fuel.

Published reports say the flight happened February 9 from Chicago to London aboard a Boeing 777.

The five passengers were upgraded to the business class cabin, but the environmental group Friends of Earth called it an "obscene waste of fuel."  It's estimated that each passenger left a carbon footprint 35-to-45 times higher than if the flight was full.

American says it did consider canceling the flight and re-booking the passengers on other flights.

"However, this would have left a plane load of west-bound passengers stranded in London Heathrow were due to fly to the U.S. on the same aircraft," said American Airlines' European spokesperson Anneliese Morris.