Ghost tours
Airlines are resorting to flight gimmicks to generate revenues amid the extended lull in air travel and tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In Thailand, an operator of
commercial planes in the coastal city of Pattaya still sells flight tickets, but buyers only get to enjoy first class seating and cafe dining inside the plane which does not fly. Paying guests get a tour but only as far as the cockpit where they can temporarily pretend to be pilots.
In Taiwan, EVA Air managed to get full booking for a special flight in celebration of Father’s Day last 8 August. The Hello Kitty flight BR5288 with 309 passengers onboard took off from Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport and flew for two hours and 45 minutes before turning back. The passengers got a tour of landmarks and scenery, including islands, at altitudes from 20,000 to 25,000 feet.
The latest to offer similar tour flights was Australian air carrier Qantas. Its seven-hour scenic “flight to nowhere” on 10 October was sold out in just 10 minutes. The 134 available seats on a wide-body Boeing 787 priced between $575 and $2,765 will give passengers a low-level scenic view over the famous Great Barrier Reef and other spots.
Meanwhile, cruise ships may take a while to offer similar gimmicks as some of these vessels were sites of COVID-19 outbreaks. Many of the gigantic floating hotels have been grounded in anchorages as port authorities disallowed docking to prevent the entry of possibly infected passengers.
Nevertheless, one enterprising Briton, Paul Derham, was able to cash in on the tourism derelicts floating idly in the southwest coast of the UK.
Derham, a former cruise ship worker now operating two ferries in Mudeford, a small beachside parish in England’s Dorset region, offered 2.5-hour sea tours of “ghost ships” as what the empty cruise vessels have become. Locals curious of the hospitality behemoths they can only see from a distance bought Derham’s ferry tickets for the close encounter with the ghost ships.
Incidentally, many participants to Derham’s Ghost Cruise Tours are avid cruisers, and they joined the sail-by not just for the spectacle. Since cruising won’t be available any sooner, their ferry ride around cruise ships would at least give them the feel of being back aboard the pleasure liners.