Flights of fancy give a glimpse of jet-set world

Delhi: Stretching out his legs in the front row of economy, Sunil Chaudhury sighs that he is "in heaven".
It is not just that the 23-year-old student has bagged the best cheap seats on board; this is the first time he has been on a plane. Two hours later, he is still smiling, though the plane has not taken off. Nor is it likely to, fixed as it is to the ground by two sturdy steel poles.
Every week, hundreds of Indians visit a 280-seat Airbus A300 parked in a marshy field in Dwarka, on the south-western outskirts of Delhi. After checking in their bags and being issued with boarding passes, they climb on board and take their seats. A public address system reminds them to fasten their seatbelts; minutes later a beaming air hostess trundles up the aisle with refreshments.
This singular plane belongs to B.C. Gupta, a former Indian Airlines pilot. He bought the aircraft in 2003, to turn it into a training centre for India's ever-increasing number of cabin staff. But then he remembered how, as a newly qualified pilot, he had been flooded with requests from friends and relations from his home village in Haryana, northern India, to "visit" the planes he flew. So Mr Gupta decided to open his plane to the public too.
Today, Indians who cannot afford to take a real flight can pay 150 rupees ($A4.67) to sit in an air-conditioned metal tube. Their experience is heightened by Dwarka's proximity to Delhi's domestic and international airports: every few minutes, a plane takes off overhead. "There's so much fascination with flying these days, but most people have never even been on a plane," says Nimal Jindal, Mr Gupta's wife, who sometimes plays air hostess.
In the space of a few years, air travel in India has been revolutionised by a flood of cheap domestic airlines. Yet only 1 per cent of Indians have ever boarded an aircraft.
18/08/07 Mian Ridge/The Age, Australia

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Categories: New Aug 2007