EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) and Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) yesterday both launched “flight to nowhere” programs for next month’s Mid-Autumn Festival, hoping to offer passengers a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of the moon from a plane.
The latest offering follows their programs last month for Father’s Day and Lovers’ Day (also known as the Qixi Festival), in which tickets sold out quickly.
EVA said it would offer one evening flight per day during the Mid-Autumn Festival long weekend from Oct. 1 to Oct. 4.
Photo courtesy of EVA Airways Corp
The planes are scheduled to take off after 6pm so that passengers can view the moon, it told the Taipei Times by telephone.
EVA is deploying its Boeing 787-10 planes for the four flights, which have 342 seats compared with 309 for the Hello Kitty-themed Airbus SE A330-300 planes that it used before, it said.
“The fact that a Boeing 787-10 aircraft has the largest windows among all wide-body commercial planes would be a selling point,” it said.
Similar to its previous programs, the Boeing 787-10 jets would not land in a foreign airport, but would make a sightseeing loop over Taiwan’s west coast and Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, EVA said.
The planes would descend to an altitude of about 20,000 feet (6,096m), compared with regular commercial flights’ 9,144m, to give passengers a better view, it said.
With tickets priced at NT$5,888 (US$199.4) for an economy-class seat and NT$7,888 for a business-class seat, EVA is forecast to make at least NT$8.32 million in revenue from the four flights.
EVA is planning to launch another six “fly-to-nowhere” programs over the Double Ten National Day, Halloween, Double 11 Singles’ Day, Christmas and New Year’s Day, it said.
“The revenue we make from the special flights would be nothing compared with those generated from our international flights prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, but at least those programs could help maintain our cash flow,” an EVA official said.
Meanwhile, Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) plans to offer six “fly to the moon” flights on Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, using its A321neo planes.
However, it has not finalized its ticket prices and flight schedule, Starlux said, adding that it would not all be evening flights.
Tigerair Taiwan Ltd (台灣虎航), the nation’s only low-cost carrier, yesterday said it as still evaluating whether to offer such special flights, after canceling its Lovers’ Day flights due to lower-than-expected sales.
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