disTraction #139 – The Joy of Flying Nowhere

“We’re on the road to nowhere,
Come on inside.
Taking that ride to nowhere,
We’ll take that ride.”

– David Byrne, Talking Heads

Miss traveling? Flying? Reporter Tariro Mzezewa writes that people who miss flying are rushing to buy tickets for flights that land in the same place they took off from.

Nadari Harif is a disc jockey at Kristal FM radio in Brunei, a nation in the island of Borneo. After six months of social distancing, he walked through the entrance of Borneo International Airport with great anticipation of getting on a plane again. Where was he going? Nowhere.

“I didn’t realize how much I’d missed traveling, missed flying, until the moment the captain’s voice came on the speaker with the welcome and safety announcement,” Mr. Harif thought as he fastened his seatbelt on Royal Brunei Airlines for an 85 minute flight. The airline calls it the “dine and fly” program. It serves local cuisine to passengers while flying over the country.

Mr. Harif is one of thousands of people in Brunai, Taiwan, Japan and Australia who have started booking flights that start and end in the same place. Some airlines call these “scenic flights.” Other are more direct, calling them, “flights to nowhere.”

Royal Brunei has run five such flights since mid-August. Since Brunei has had so few cases of the coronavirus, the airline is not requiring passengers to wear masks, but staff members are.

Earlier in the month, the Taiwanese airline EVA Air filled all 309 seats on its Hello Kitty-themed A330 Dream jet for Father’s Day in Taiwan, and Japan’s All Nippon Airways had a Hawaiian-resort-themed, 90 minute flight with 300 people on board. Recently, Quantas announced a flight to nowhere over Australia. That flight sold out in 10 minutes.

“So many of our frequent fliers are used to being on a plane every other week and have been telling us they miss the experience of flying as much as the destinations themselves,” Alan Joyce, the chief Executive of Quantas Airlines, said in a statement when they announced its seven-hour flight that would depart from and land in Sydney.

Tickets for the flight range from about $575 to $2,765. The flight will take travelers around Australia, over the North Territory, Queensland and New South Wales.

At a time when most people are stuck at home and unable to travel, and the global airline industry has been decimated by the pandemic, flights that take off and return to the same airport a few hours later help airlines to keep staff working. It also satisfies that “itch” to travel, even if it’s just being on a plane again. Many people feel that flying is the exciting part of the travel experience, not just getting from Point A to Point B.

A handful of travel agents (yes, there still are quite a few) in India, Australia and the United States said their clients have been asking about flights to nowhere in the past two months as they’ve had to face the reality that travel may not return to normal for some time.

Loveleen Arun is a Bangalore-based travel agent who designs luxury trips mostly for Indian travelers. She’s been hearing frequently from antsy clients.

“One of my clients said just a few days ago, ‘all I want is to be in a window seat and see clouds go by. I miss that sight. I just want white fluffy clouds!’” Ms. Arun said. “Some people just want to drag their bags through the airport and go check them in.”

Of course, there are people who are skeptical about flying to nowhere. When Nadiah Hamid’s parents forced her to join them on Royal Brunei’s flight to nowhere, she though the idea was ridiculous. But after a few minutes aloft, she had a change of heart.

“Normally,” Ms. Hamid said, “when you’re flying you don’t really know where you are, so it was nice to have someone contextualize things in our country. The views were really beautiful.”

Criticism of “flights to nowhere” has been intense. Both environmental groups and travelers have taken to social media to express their frustrations. They argue that an industry that had already negatively affected the environment before the pandemic is continuing to do so with these unnecessary flights.

Nonetheless, if you miss the joy of flying, “Destination: Nowhere” is only gaining in popularity.