Cathay Pacific’s low-cost offshoot, HK Express, is jumping onboard the flights to nowhere bandwagon. HK Express is offering three 90 minute flights to nowhere in November. The airline is styling the flights as a “flycation” and promising a good time on the short jaunt over Hong Kong.
“After months of travel constraints, many travel lovers are itching to explore the world again,” says HK Express, in a media statement.
“The new 1.5-hour flycation flight experience will encircle our beautiful city.”
Dates set but HK Express otherwise light on the details
The airline also promises to showcase the measures they’ve introduced in-flight to keep passengers safe and healthy. Frankly, that doesn’t exactly sound like a good time to me, but each to their own.
HK Express says passengers will get a gift bag that’s inspired by the destinations that they fly to. There’s also talk of “fun activities” onboard. Exactly what the fun activities are, the airline isn’t specifying. Certainly, there’s no word on whether it involves the food trolley and drinks cart. But given HK Express is a low-cost carrier, you can probably safely rule out any free-flowing Tattinger.
Also, HK Express isn’t saying how much these flights to nowhere will cost. But the airline is saying when they’ll operate. The flights will depart Hong Kong International Airport at 14:00 local time on November 1,7, and 8. All the flights are tagged UO1800. These flights are not yet showing up as available for sale but HK Express says more details with be available soon.
HK Express latest airline to jump on flights to nowhere trend
HK Express is the latest airline to jump onboard the flights to nowhere craze. These flights run from the relatively modest to the somewhat epic.
Some flights don’t even go anywhere. Singapore Airlines has binned its proposed flights to nowhere in favor of keeping paying passengers on the tarmac and giving them the full A380 inflight cabin experience. You could argue a couple of hours kicking back in a Singapore Airlines business class seat going nowhere, hovering up their tasty satay sticks, and saying hello to a few glasses of something cold is a better option than 90 minutes flying around on a low-cost carrier. But then again, that’s entirely subjective.
In August, ANA ran a couple of flights to nowhere using its distinctive A380s. These aircraft usually work the Hawaii run. While these flights were only 90 minutes, they had a Hawaii vibe with Hawaii themed gifts and drinks. These flights came about because while ANA’s A380s have been grounded, they still need to take to the air every 90 days to avoid a significant maintenance check. So, ANA killed two birds with one stone.
Yesterday, the team at Simple Flying picked up on an altogether bigger flight to nowhere. Next year, a tour business plans to charter a Dreamliner out of Australia and head south towards Antarctica to chase the southern Aurora Australis lights. It steps these flights to nowhere up a notch. But this will be a long flight, it will be expensive, and it will be overnight. Pricing starts from US$3137 in economy class or just over $10,000 if you prefer to sit up the front. Overall, it sounds super interesting. Because let’s face it, who hasn’t missed overnight flying and a 05:00 landing?
Airlines will keep pushing the boundaries with these flights to nowhere. As the latest offer from HK Express suggests, it looks like they’re here to stay – at least for a while. Depending on how keen you are to get back on a plane, that’s either a good or bad thing.