Faced with the coronavirus collapse in travelers, Taiwanese airlines have begun offering sightseeing"flights to nowhere" on their passenger jets – including flight attendant lessons for children.
Cheng Yu-wei, who works in the fashion apparel business and enjoys traveling abroad, came with his wife and 6-year-old daughter to"revive that old feeling of traveling."Later in the day, the excitable gaggle of kids took to the skies in their new uniforms for a two-hour flight over the island and the soaring mountain range that runs down its spine.
Like most airlines around the world, both China Airlines and its main competitor Eva Air have had to mothball a huge chunk of their fleet as international travel evaporates during the pandemic.On Saturday, an Eva A330 from Taoyuan International Airport flew over Taiwan's northeast cape, circled Japan's Ryukyu Islands before returning home via the picturesque and rural southeast coast. The total flight time was two hours and 45 minutes.
Local enthusiasm for the trips has been helped by the knowledge that there is currently little chance of catching the coronavirus on a Taiwanese flight.