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As the coronavirus pandemic continues inflict pain on airlines around the world, Qantas, Australia’s national carrier, has jumped on the bandwagon of launching “Flights to Nowhere.”
WHAT IS A FLIGHT TO NOWHERE?
Are you asking “what is a flight to nowhere?” Well, here is the basic concept, a flight departs a specific city, flies for a designated amount of time (typically a few hours), and then returns the same departure airport.
A few days ago, I wrote about Singapore considering the idea of “flights to nowhere” and asked if you would be interested in these types of flights?
Well, according to Reuters, Qantas sold out their first 7 hour scenic flight in less than 10 minutes yesterday.
WHAT IS INCLUDED WITH THE FLIGHT?
All passengers will be provided breakfast in the Qantas Lounge prior to departure and will have the opportunity to take part in an auction of memorabilia from Qantas’ recently retired fleet of Boeing 747s.
The carrier will be utilizing a 787 and depart from Sydney. It will fly at a low-level over Australia’s Outback, Uluru National Park, the Great Barrier Reef, and Sydney Harbor on it’s final approach back to the airport in Sydney.
Additionally, during the flight passengers will be served a meal prepared Neil Perry, a renowned Australian chef and restaurateur.
HOW MUCH DOES THIS COST?
Passengers paid A$787 (USD $574) for economy, A$1,787 (USD $1302) for premium economy, and A$3,787 (USD $2,762) for business. Did you notice they incorporated the 787 in the price? 😉
It appears Qantas is socially distancing passengers as the flight only offered 134 seats (6 in business, 24 premium economy, and 104 in economy) out of 236 available seats on the Qantas 787.
FINAL STAMP
Interestingly, to my knowledge, Australia has closed the six states and territories in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, so was the flight only available to the ~8 million people located in New South Wales (where Sydney is located)?
Regardless, the first flight is sold out and maybe Qantas is onto something. Perhaps, this is way to jumpstart the travel economy without opening borders and contributing to the transmission of COVID19?
‘Flights to nowhere’ are the latest trend in Asia, as EVA (a Taiwan based carrier), Starlux (a Taiwan based carrier), and ANA (a Japan based carrier) have all sold these types of flights in recent weeks.
Clearly, there are a lot of people missing flying and apparently the experience matters more than the destination.
Would you be interested in taking a ‘flight to nowhere?’
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