Flights to nowhere. The latest ‘cunning plan’ by Thai Airways

Sort of counter-intuitive, but you get on a plane, take off, and land at the same airport. Not usually the way it’s meant to work, but that’s the latest brain child of the Thai Airways management, via their budget Thai Smile brand, who are already back in the air.

The idea is to offer people who have missed the experience of flying to get back into the sky and fly around for a few hours, including an airline meal (because we know HOW much you’ve missed those!), and then return back to the airport they took off from. We hate to remind the braintrust at Thai Airways that you can already get that experience on an aeroplane, and actually go somewhere at the moment. Then again, as a novelty, it might just get a few takers.

The national carrier has gone from being a much-loved flag bearer to a national disgrace as decades of mismanagement have racked up debt totalling 352.4 billion baht. Rather than reaching back into their pockets again, the Thai government sold off a number of shares and sent the company for a major restructure and bankruptcy proceedings.

The ailing airline’s management have already launched pop-up cafes at the Bangkok HQ for a grounded ‘flight’ experience, complete with aircraft seating and an airline meal, but the new joy flights will use more of the current unused resources, including planes and staff, and flight training simulators.

Australia’s QANTAS Airways launched the same idea earlier this month, also called the “flight to nowhere” and discovered it was one of the fastest-selling flights in the airline’s history. All the tickets snapped up in 10 minutes with passengers throwing between A$575 and A$2,765 at seats on the Boeing 787.

The Aussie flag carrier launched a 7 hour scenic route around the country, taking off and landing in Sydney, as the usual schedule of flights around the country remains restricted.

The flights are on October 10, the flight won’t stop anywhere, but gives passengers the change to enjoy views over Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, and other landmarks.

There were 134 seats up for grabs on the Boeing 787 aircraft, priced between depending on the class of ticket.

Thai Airways is preparing to operate its own ‘flights to nowhere’ and ‘rides’ in the airlies’ flight simulator under a program called ‘Thai Flying Experience & Beyond’.

Thai Airways is going through the permissions from the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand to conduct the scenic aircraft ‘flights to nowhere’ .

A Thai Smile Airbus A320 will be in use for the flight which would include the beautiful aerial scenery of popular tourist destinations across the country such as Phra That Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai.

The ‘Thai Flying Experience & Beyond’ flights to nowhere program features 3 packages starting from 16,000 – 36,000 baht. For the flight simulator experience budding pilots can select their preferred aircraft between Airbus A380, Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing B747-400, and Boeing 737-400. The ‘flight to nowhere’ would approximately cost about 5,000 baht/person.

“Thai Airways has come up with this idea to adjust itself and to earn more income during the financial crisis. We believed that both programs would catch public attention especially for those who would like to try sitting and flying in an aviator operating room.”

By the way, if you’re in Australia and want to participate in a slightly colder round trip, QANTAS is running “joy flights” to Antarctica.

Planes, originally delivered to fly UK-Australia non-stop are being redeployed on the 13 hour roundtrip from Melbourne. Passengers are paying from A$1,199 for the flight to the frozen continent and back. Around one-third of it spent above the Antarctic continent.