To satisfy the wanderlust of would-be tourists during the current worldwide pandemic, Singapore Airlines (SIA) is planning to introduce flights that will take passengers to nowhere at all. Literally dubbed as “flights to nowhere” by the airliner, the idea is to have planes take off from Singapore’s Changi airport, stay in the air for three hours, and then land back.
The decision to introduce this new service is intended to help boost SIA’s business during these trying times, where travel is restricted by governments worldwide due to COVID-19 concerns. Apart from the flights to nowhere approach, the airliner is also considering several other initiatives which would allow it to continue to engage with customers as well as members of the public. SIA did not provide any details on its proposed flights to nowhere, but said that it is looking to launch the service by late October.
According to The Straits Times, the Singapore Air Charter firm had conducted a survey of 308 people, and found that 75-percent of the respondents are willing to pay for flights to nowhere. In addition, the most popular price-range that respondents would pay for the service is SGD288 (~RM874) for an economy class seat and SGD588 (~RM1785) for a business class seat. When asked about the duration of the flights, 60-percent said that they would prefer it to last for two hours instead of three.
On a somewhat related note, Singapore Airlines isn’t the only air travel service that is providing strange yet interesting approaches for would-be travellers. The Songshan airport in Taiwan also offered “fake flights” to customers back in early July. Unlike the flights offered by SIA, the Taiwanese airport’s planes won’t be leaving the ground throughout the entire experience.
What interesting times we live in. We can’t but wonder if Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia have anything similar in mind?
(Source: The Straits Times | Images: SIA)
