Japan’s All Nippon Airways is laying on another A380 scenic flight to nowhere. The flight, slated to take off on December 20, is for members of an ANA Facebook group. The Facebook group is made up of keen ANA Mileage Club members. The scenic flight is open to them, their family and friends on a first-come-first-served basis.
The news about this upcoming flight was first reported on the Japanese blog, Traicey.com. They’ve got the flight running out of Narita in December. The ANA fans will only be in the air for 90 minutes. Seats are available in all four classes on the A380 and priced accordingly.
To date, All Nippon Airways has operated a handful of scenic flights to nowhere using its A380 planes.
The first was in late August for 334 passengers. That flight was so popular it was oversubscribed by a factor of 150. All Nippon Airways resorted to conducting a lottery-style draw. That encouraged the airline to run a couple of more scenic flights.
The next one is coming up soon, on November 15. This upcoming flight is a bit longer than ANA’s usual 90-minute scenic flights. The November flight will stay in the air for three hours. But good luck snagging a ticket. Again, the airline is running a lottery-type draw.
The December flight represents an interesting departure for the norm in that it’s only open to members of a particular Facebook group. It’s a fair-sized group, with members who are clearly keen on ANA’s planes, so filling the A380 shouldn’t prove an issue. But All Nippon Airways may be onto something here, targeting particular groups rather than the broader public.