As Rs 79-k per seat, best-view windows all booked on eclipse flight

New Delhi: The ‘route’ does not sound exciting — Delhi to Gaya and back —and the timing would put off any regular flyer:4.30 am on Wednesday from IGI Airport. But for the 30 or 35 passengers, the short, three-hour air-ride will be the flight of their lives.
For, they will be chasing the once-in-a-lifetime event: witnessing the century’s longest solar eclipse from the closest quarter possible for citizens.
Eclipse Chasers Athenaeum — a group of, as the name suggests, eclipse chasers and astronomers — is organising the flight along with a travel company.
The aircraft seats come in four categories: the sun-side seats (offers the best view) on the right, the middle seats, the aisle seats and the earth-side seats on the left. While the eclipse would be least visible from the earth-side seats, enthusiasts on this side would be able to photograph the lunar shadow moving over the Earth.
There are 21 seats on both sun- and earth-sides.
“All sun-side window seats are sold out and a few earth-side window seats are left,” said Shruti Pandey, deputy manager (corporate communications) at Cox and Kings, which is organising the Boeing flight along with Eclipse Chasers Athenaeum.
Taking off from the Capital at 4.30 am, the aircraft will fly towards and hold over Gaya, Bihar, till the eclipse time. The flight, the Pandey said, will intercept the middle of the eclipse shadow at 6.26 am at a height of 41,000 feet. A sun-side seat on the special flight costs Rs 79,000. The cost is Rs 67,000 for middle seats, Rs 59,000 aisle seats and Rs 29,000 for earth-side seats.
21/07/09 Pragya Kaushika/Express India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jul 2009, JetLite Jul 2009, New Jul 2009