On the face of it, a “flight to nowhere” sounds like a lose-lose proposition. You pay a bunch of money, show up at an airport, board a plane, fly around for seven hours, and end up right back where you started. That’s a travel horror story, not a desirable vacation. But in the bizarro world of 2020 where everything is backwards, people are clamoring to take a flight with no actual destination.
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Qantas’ Seven-Hour ‘Flight to Nowhere’ Sold Out in 10 Minutes
Qantas Airlines is running a seven hour flight from Sydney to the Australian Outback named “The Great Southern Land Scenic Flight.” The only catch is, it doesn’t actually land in the Outback, and unless the plane turns into a submarine, your view of the reef is going to be pretty distant. Nonetheless, the flight sold out in 10 minutes, according to FOXNEWS.
The plane will depart from Sydney and will feature low level flybys over Sydney Harbor, the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, Kata Tjuta, and Bondi Beach — if the weather does not influence the planned flight path.
The flight is scheduled for Saturday, October 10, with seats ranging from $566 to $2,734 depending on which cabin you’re in. That’s right — almost $3,000 for a flight that doesn’t even land.
And because COVID-19 is still very much a threat, only 134 passengers will be allowed in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The airline’s CEO, Alan Joyce, said, “It’s probably the fastest selling flight in Qantas history. People clearly miss travel and the experience of flying. If the demand is there, we’ll definitely look at doing more of these scenic flights while we all wait for borders to open.”
Taiwan organized a Hello Kitty flight to nowhere for Father’s Day on August 8, 2020, and Qantas is also offering scenic 12.5-hour flights to Antarctica that don’t even land on the continent in the next few months. While these flights may be popular and offer eager travelers the thrilling illusion of traveling again, flights to nowhere are resolutely not good for our planet. 