Australian airline Qantas said it has sold the tickets for the upcoming “flight to nowhere" in a record 2.5 minutes. The May 26 event will allow travellers to gaze at the full supermoon and lunar eclipse from over 40,000-feet in the sky, CNN reported on May 13.
Qantas is known for operating such special trips, and in October last year, had taken Australians on a similar joy ride for which slots were filled within 10 minutes, despite the pandemic.
The upcoming special flight will give the travellers a chance to closely admire the lunar eclipse in a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, known for its big windows, thus giving a clear view of the supermoon to the passengers.
The price for the three-hour flight, which will depart from Sydney, started at 499 Australian dollars for economy, while those travelling inside business cabins will be shelling out at least $1,499.
NASA explained that the moon will be near its closest orbital position to Earth, due to which the name supermoon comes, and thus will look brighter to the human eye.
The moon will appear reddish to people in some parts of the world on May 26 due to lunar eclipse.
However, the upcoming Qantas event has come under the scanner of environmental activists, who criticised the Australian carrier for needlessly burning fuel, and raising carbon footprints in the world which is yet to chart out a concrete plan to tackle climate change.
Friends of the Earth, an international network of environmental groups, had criticised last year’s event by Qantas, calling it a “definition of a pointless trip", CNN quoted a spokesperson of the organisation as saying.
In wake of the criticism, Qantas had pledged to 100% neutralise the carbon emissions from the October flight, and said it plans to do the same for the May 26 pleasure trip.
Lunar eclipse is different from solar eclipse which shouldn’t be viewed with the naked eye.
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