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This photo was taken before the pandemic. Many people now wear masks on First Airlines flights.
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Flights to Nowhere
Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
Virtual reality devices help First Airlines customers feel like they’ve traveled to a new destination.
Some people miss traveling so much that they’re booking flights that don’t actually go anywhere. Many trips were canceled because of Covid-19, but a Tokyo company called First Airlines lets customers sit in a fake first-class plane cabin and pretend they’re flying to a vacation spot, such as Rome, Paris, or Hawaii. The two-hour experience costs 6,580 yen (about $62) and works similarly to a real flight: Participants get a boarding pass, watch a safety demonstration (life vests and oxygen masks included), and are served food by flight attendants as screens show clouds passing by. When the plane “arrives,” customers get virtual reality headsets that let them look around their destination. The service began in 2017, but since the pandemic hit, bookings have gone up 50 percent. Many customers say it’s the best travel option for the time being. “I often go overseas on business, but I haven’t been to Italy,” customer Katsuo Inoue told Reuters. “My impression was rather good because I got a sense of actually seeing things there.”