Forget your bog-standard Qantas flight, or even the self-consciously wacky antics of the Virgin Blue cabin crew. For an airline experience with a difference, you need to try one of the world’s more niche airlines.
At the top of the list is the recently-launched Pet Airways, which specialises in flying furry friends in comfort. But it’s by no means the only bizarre airline idea – and we’ve hunted down some of the weirdest. A few, unsurprisingly, never got off the ground.
Pet Airways
Almost certainly designed for mad old women with no human friends and far more money than sense, Pet Airways is catering purely for the pampered doggies and moggies of this world.
Instead of locking up pets in the cargo hold, Pet Airways flies its pawsengers (yes, it really does call them that) in the cabin.
In there, affairs are looked after by pet attendants, whose job it is to ensure that all of the furry fliers are happy and comfortable, and given regular toilet breaks.
The pets even have their own lounge, which they can wait in after landing while their owners come to collect them. Free drinks and wireless internet access aren’t included, but Fido probably doesn’t care all that much.
The airline launched in 2009, and flies to a series of cities across the United States.
BackpackersXpress
It’s no surprise that this one didn’t take off – it’s possibly one of the worst ideas in aviation history. The premise was to create an airline purely for British backpackers coming over to Australia for a working holiday.
The low budget flights from Melbourne to Manchester were due to have an on-board pub, giant VB logos plastered everywhere and educational presentations on how to deal with bitey Australian wildlife.
More horrendously, the airline also promised in-flight dancing competitions and karaoke contests, reasoning that what people want whilst trapped in a metal tube for 24 hours is lots and lots on enforced fun.
Flight attendants were going to be trained to stimulate passenger interaction, while the face of the whole project was Ryan Moloney – otherwise known as Toadfish from Neighbours.
Amazingly, the airline struggled to convince enough people that being surrounded by drunks bellowing the Home And Away theme tune for a day was a good idea. Investment dried up, and the airline went bye-byes before its inaugural flight could get off the ground.
Naked-Air
Take-off had a rather different meaning for passengers on this short-lived American airline. Naked-Air only ever had two flights – from Miami to Cancun in Mexico, then back again – but those trips sure were a little different.
The flights were aimed at nudists who were going to a clothes-optional festival in the Mexican tourist hotspot, and as soon as the seatbelt sign went off, so did the kit.
100 exhibitionist passengers sat aboard the inaugural (and, as it turns out, penultimate) flight, and as soon as cruising altitude was reached, they were allowed to get down to the bare necessities.
The middle seats were – for obvious reasons – left free, whilst the airline staff remained fully-clothed and stern-faced. But everyone else seemed happy to pose for photographers in the buff.
Naked-Air’s only flights took place in 2003, and a German travel firm tried to resurrect the idea with limited success in 2009.
OssiUrlaub was due to fly passengers pining for the old Eastern German days of nude revelry from Erfurt to the Baltic Sea coast, but the flight was cancelled at the last minute due to ‘moral concerns’.
Erotic Airways
Going one step further from Naked-Air is this rather seedy outfit, operating from Redcliffe Airport in Brisbane. Erotic Airways boasts that it gives passengers a ‘mile high sexperience’, and provides a far more comfortable way of joining the Mile High Club than trying to sneak ten minutes in a Jetstar toilet.
Passengers on the hour long extremely scenic flights are presented with a satin-covered double bed, champagne and chocolates.
The cabin and cockpit (the one where the pilot sits, not the other version) are kept separate so lovers can do their thang with a modicum of privacy. Erotic Airways also provides the necessary equipment to,er, keep passengers safely secured during landing, and is happy to organise special anniversary and honeymoon packages.
But surely Erotic Airways is missing the point here – isn’t joining the Mile High Club all about the thrill of potentially getting caught?
MDLR
If the thought of all that meat on Erotic Airways is a little too much, then the antidote comes in the form of Indian airline MDLR.
The airline, aimed largely at religious tourists within India, is proud to boast that it only serves vegetarian cuisine to its passengers.
And just in case that wasn’t quite pious enough, the airline also has a strict no alcohol policy.
It’s not about being too cheap to provide meat in the inflight meals – MDLR actually uses its vegetarian only policy as a major selling point to its potential customers.
This article was originally written for Ninemsn.
Copyright David Whitley
