Asia-Based Airlines Get Creative to Make Up for Losses
Thailand’s Thai Airways is one of the several Asian airlines employing unconventional strategies to make up for their pandemic-induced losses (Wikimedia Commons).
Asian airlines are scrambling to devise ingenious strategies to make up for losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These creative schemes include sightseeing flights to nowhere, religious themed flights, fashioning bags from old life vests, and selling retired bar carts.
Vacation-deprived and restless citizens are buying into these new ideas, causing many airlines’ new ventures to sell out. Airlines are beginning to explore a variety of new opportunities due to the large successes.
Asia was hit hard by the pandemic at first, and airlines are currently struggling because of a lack of demand for flights. Even now, travel restrictions make it difficult to leave or enter many Asian countries. For example, foreign arrivals into Indonesia for tourism purposes are currently banned.
Due to the limits on international travel, airlines have instead opted for flights to nowhere, or sightseeing tours, where flights take off and land in the same place. Qantas, Australia’s flag carrier airline, Taiwanese airline EVA air, Japanese airline All Nippon Airways, Thai Airways, and Hong Kong Airlines all offer these types of flights. Qantas is offering flights over Antarctica, while Hong Kong Airlines is advertising a sunset flight.
Thai Airways is heading in a different direction. Instead of flights that focus on sightseeing, Thai Airways is offering a religious flight tour on November 30. The holy tour will fly over 99 holy sites, mostly Buddhist temples, in 31 provinces and will be about 10,000 Baht (US$326) for business class and 6,000 Baht (US$196) for economy class. A celebrity fortune-teller will also lead Buddhist chants on the flight.
On top of offering religious themed flights, Thai Airways has launched a “Re-Life Collection,” which sells limited edition bags made out of life jackets and slide rafts. It is encouraging buyers to “help save the world from climate change” through purchasing bags from the collection. The style is so popular that it has already sold out. The airline is experimenting with these approaches and several others to reduce their debt, which stands at about 250 billion Baht.
Some airlines are aiming to cut their losses after cancelling most flights due to the pandemic. Qantas has put retired bar carts up for sale, fully stocked with different kinds of alcohol. 1,000 carts were put up for sale after the pandemic forced Qantas to retire its Boeing 747 fleets. The carts retailed at A$1474.70 (US$1038.74), and they quickly sold out.