Flight attendant serves food aboard a Singapore Airlines plane at Changi International Airport.
Singapore:
Hundreds of travel-hungry diners ate lunch and watched seatback movies aboard two parked Singapore Airlines jets turned into pop-up restaurants on Saturday.
With the aviation industry in deep crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic, airlines have turned to alternative means of raising funds, ranging from offering “flights to nowhere” to plane tours.
Singapore’s national carrier, which has cut thousands of jobs and ground nearly all of its planes this year, offered passengers the option of dining on board two A380 superjumbos – the world‘s largest passenger plane.
On Saturday, more than 400 diners checked in at Changi Airport and went through the usual security checks before arriving at the plane for lunch.
“The food is pretty amazing, it’s better than the food they serve on the flight,” Zhou Tai Di, a 17-year-old economy class student, told AFP as he stuffed his soy sauce glazed chicken with it. spicy fried eggplant. and rice.
Some settled in to take a nap while waiting for their meals to be served, while others watched movies on the backrest entertainment systems.
About half of the seats remained empty, in line with social distancing guidelines.
Over 400 guests checked in at Changi Airport for lunch.
Calvin Teo, a 29-year-old civil servant and aviation enthusiast, paid Sg $ 321 ($ 236) to have a six-course meal served in business class, claiming he missed flying and hoped to recreate the experience .
“Of course the feeling of flying will be better, because there is the excitement of going to a new destination, exploring a new destination, and even though we cannot do it now because of Covid, it is is a good substitute for the moment, to recreate the sensations of a long-haul flight, ”he told AFP.
The most expensive option is an eight-course meal at 642 Sg in a first class suite, while the cheapest is 53 Sg and consists of a three-course meal in economy class.
A limited number of diners were also able to tour the double-decker aircraft and take selfies with pilots in the cockpit.
Meals on the tarmac proved surprisingly popular – the airline announced six additional sessions after more than 900 lunch tickets sold out within 30 minutes of opening reservations earlier this month.
The airline also offers home deliveries of meals by plane, but it has scrapped plans for “flights to nowhere” – short journeys starting and ending at the same airport – following an outcry over the potential environmental impact.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
