Qantas selling fly-me-to-the-moon tickets as Covid drags on

Fly me to the Supermoon is the latest offering in airlines’ merry-go-round of flights to nowhere, with Qantas Airways Ltd. promising a night of cosmic cocktails and cake aboard one of its Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliners.

After scenic flights over the Great Barrier Reef, vast outback and Antarctica, Australia’s flagship carrier will start selling tickets from Wednesday for a trip on May 26 to see the rising supermoon, which that evening also happens to be a total lunar eclipse. A supermoon is when a full moon occurs at the closest point to Earth during its orbit, making it appear larger and brighter.

For A$1,499 ($1,170) for business class, passengers will meet in the Qantas lounge in Sydney for drinks, canapes and entertainment before ascending well into the atmosphere to view the moon. The night flight will climb above any cloud cover and should touch 43,000 feet, the maximum cruising altitude of a 787. Most passenger flights cruise at around 35,000 feet. An astronomer will be on board for commentary and insights.

Since Covid-19 forced the closure of international borders, decimating travel, airlines have turned to any number of innovative ways to make a little extra cash. Several have offered flights to nowhere but other gimmicks include dinners on an A380 from Singapore Airlines Ltd. and a pop-up restaurant at Thai Airways International Pcl’s Bangkok headquarters. Qantas has also taken to selling its business-class pyjamas and the bar carts (fully stocked) from its retired 747s.

However, any income from such efforts won’t do much to alleviate the industry’s broader pain. Carriers are forecast to lose $47.7 billion this year, the International Air Transport Association said last month, with the crisis “longer and deeper than anyone could have expected.”