For a taste of air travel, Indians board flights to nowhere

It's 10am on a Monday morning and I'm standing on a patch of dusty asphalt in the far reaches of south-west Delhi. Just ahead, a towering aluminium stairway leads up to the entrance of an orange and white passenger jet. For myself and a large number of domestic travellers, it's a familiar scene. Rising levels of tourism and a booming national economy have combined over the past 10 years to make India the world's fastest-growing commercial aviation market.
However, I am not queuing for a normal departure. This particular aircraft has one wing, no tail, no engines and is wedged inside an open-faced concrete building. Along with about 100 excitable eight-year-olds who are now running circles around three harried teachers, I am waiting for an altogether different experience: the Center for Civil Aviation's introduction to the world of aeroplanes - better known as "the flight to nowhere".
Odd as it may seem, the fact that we won't even be taking off is doing nothing to dull the enthusiasm of my little companions. When the door finally opens, the children - here on a class trip from the nearby Arvind Gupta DAV Centenary School - race, two-by-two, up the creaking steps. The noise is deafening, and it only gets louder when we are safely inside the cabin. Still, such eagerness is hardly surprising. Few, if any, of these kids have ever been near a plane before.
30/06/12 Dave Stelfox/The National

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jun 2012