Only in India.......Flight to nowhere....

[Roscoe]

From The Sunday Times
September 30, 2007
Book now for the flight to nowhere
Matthew Campbell

AN INDIAN entrepreneur has given a new twist to the concept of low-cost airlines. The passengers boarding his Airbus 300 in Delhi do not expect to go anywhere because it never takes off.

All they want is the chance to know what it is like to sit on a plane, listen to announcements and be waited on by stewardesses bustling up and down the aisle.

In a country where 99% of the population have never experienced air travel, the “virtual journeys” of Bahadur Chand Gupta, a retired Indian Airlines engineer, have proved a roaring success.

As on an ordinary aircraft, customers buckle themselves in and watch a safety demonstration. But when they look out of the windows, the landscape never changes. Even if “Captain” Gupta wanted to get off the ground, the plane would not go far: it only has one wing and a large part of the tail is missing.

None of that bothers Gupta as he sits at the controls in his cockpit. His regular announcements include, “We will soon be passing through a zone of turbulence” and “We are about to begin our descent into Delhi.”

“Some of my passengers have crossed the country to get on this plane,” says Gupta, who charges about £2 each for passengers taking the “journey”.

The plane has no lighting and the lavatories are out of order. The air-conditioning is powered by a generator. Even so, about 40 passengers turn up each Saturday to queue for boarding cards.

Gupta bought the plane in 2003 from an insurance company. It was dismantled and then put together again ina southern suburb of Delhi. The Indian Airline logo on the fuselage has been replaced by the name Gupta.

Passengers are looked after by a crew of six, including Gupta’s wife, who goes up and down the aisle with her drinks trolley, serving meals in airline trays.

Some of the stewardesses hope to get jobs on proper planes one day and regard it as useful practice.

As for the passengers, they are too poor to afford a real airline ticket and most have only ever seen the interior of an aircraft in films.

“I see planes passing all day long over my roof,” Selim, a 40-year-old tyre mechanic was quoted as saying. “I had to try out the experience.”

Jasmine, a young teacher, had been longing to go on a plane. “It is much more beautiful than I ever imagined,” she said.

[Wayne Maybury]

Now that is a good example of an entrepreneur taking advantage of a "niche" market.

Wayne

[1ntCobra]

Years ago, the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia used to have an old jet that you could walk through. No stewardess service. I don't know if it is still there.

[Roscoe]

I guess they can never get into the mile high club.....

[Ron61]

Add some hydraulics to make the plane move up and down some and a rolling picture background on the outside and his business would really take off. Kind of like the Cobra builders sitting in their cars and going VAROOM, VAROOM.

Ron

[Fred Douglass]

....makes one wonder how the "rising Asiatic giants" are going to handle their predicted dominance of the world economy. The "elites" will take their money and run to the Riviera and 99% of their populations will continue "viewing the world over the haunches of a mortgaged bovine" (to paraphrase some wit's immortal phrase)...

Ar-ar-ar.

We'll be learning Spanish and wondering how (and then why) Hillary did it....but they'll still be cr*pping in public!

Yar-freakin'-hoooooo!!!!

[Roscoe]

Fred....YOU'RE ALIVE!!

[Fred Douglass]

You call this livin'? ar-ar-ar-ar-oogle

GO NAVY!!! (Anyone watching?)

Chow,

[chopper]

Originally Posted by Roscoe

The plane has no lighting and the lavatories are out of order. The air-conditioning is powered by a generator. Even so, about 40 passengers turn up each Saturday to queue for boarding cards.

Sort of sounds like my last flight out of Philadelphia on US Airways.

[xracerbob]

If you've ever flown on a flight originating in India, the smell of curry (and other things I suspect) is overpowering. I used to take a Northwest flight that started in Delhi, stopped in Amsterdam where I boarded and then on to the US. After a few times I couldn't take the smell and started using other airlines.

Can't imagine what what that airbus smells like. Or maybe I can...

[Roscoe]

Do you think any of the passengers on that airline notice the smell?

Roscoe