MILANO – “Ladies and gentlemen welcome aboard. Please fasten your seat belt, bring the seat upright, hold your fork and start eating. Enjoy your meal!”. Those who are satisfied enjoy. The pandemic has landed nearly two-thirds of the world‘s air fleet. And more and more companies – waiting for vaccinations to revive traffic – have decided to make a virtue of necessity, transforming their airplanes sadly parked on the ground into starred restaurants for nostalgic for lunch on board.
The trend was launched by Singapore Airlines, which since October has been selling covers on an A 380 at Changi airport; prices from 35 to 400 euros, including a visit to the captain in the cockpit and tours around all classes of the Airbus giant. It was a resounding success, with the first two meals sold out in less than half an hour. And the initiative has made proselytes today. All Nippon Airways launched its restaurant with wings this week. Accommodation on board a Boeing 777, bill up to 500 euros and even here reservations closed in a few minutes, with the program extended for the whole of April.
Thai has replicated the concept with creativity: she transformed the bar of the company’s headquarters in Bangkok, furnishing it in the image and likeness of an airplane interior, complete with armchairs and hostesses that serve. And it serves classic flight menus for those with a longing for the good old days when – every now and then – they checked in. British Airways, on the other hand, offers its on-board catering with home delivery with different solutions within reach of all budgets.
The hope of the companies, to tell the truth, is yes to dismantle these promotional initiatives as soon as possible (in addition to the restaurant planes, flights to nowhere still work, with take-off and landing at the same airport) and return to the core business of air transport. In some corner of the world, lucky them, it is already like this. Domestic traffic in China has returned to pre-pandemic levels. In Australia, the government has launched promotions to support domestic flights. Ryanair, with a shot of confidence, has decided to put its fleet into service in Europe almost at full capacity already this summer, with an offer equal to 80% of the pre-Covid era. The demand – thanks to vaccines – is however growing: in recent weeks, an average of 80,000 planes have flown a day. We are far from the 109 thousand of a year ago, but it is a much more comforting figure than the 60 thousand in February.
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