The airline industry is not doing great.

Which suggests a need for dire innovation.

EVA Air, a Taiwanese international airline, made arrangements for a special trip, where a Hello Kitty plane took off from Taipei Taoyuan Airport in the morning of August 8.

Three hours later, the flight landed right back there, by design. It even made a thumbs up sign while at it.

EVA Air pulled out all the stops as well, with the plane flying over plenty of local attractions.

According to CNN, economy class tickets went at NT$5,288 (S$246), and passengers could upgrade their seats to business class for an additional NT$1,000 (S$46).

According to Bangkok Post, 309 passengers went on the "flight to nowhere".

Clay Sun, President of EVA Airways, had this to say about the maiden flight to nowhere.

“The support you have given for this special Taipei-to-Taipei flight experience not only shows travellers’ desire to fly but also encourages airlines to sustain flight services through COVID-19 lockdowns and difficulties. We hope that this pandemic will be over soon. And we look forward to resuming operations and services so our passengers can once again fly with confidence and relish the joys of traveling abroad,”

Another flight scheduled on August 15 was fully booked as well.

Totally unrelated but here's the latest episode of our podcast

Image from EVA Air on Facebook