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Singapore Airlines (SIA) has dropped its plans for the "flights to nowhere" programme.

This was announced by the airlines on Sep. 29, along with a slew of new experiences under the "Discover Your Singapore Airlines" suite of initiatives.

"An idea for a one-off short tour flight, or a 'flight to nowhere', was also initially considered but not pursued after the review," the company said.

According to SIA, the experiences eventually curated for "Discover Your Singapore Airlines" are the result of a market study and a comprehensive review, which also considered factors such as:

• Environmental implications
• Financial viability
• The attractiveness of the initiatives

When queried by Mothership, SIA confirmed that it "currently [does] not have any plans for a flight to nowhere".

Instead, it has decided to go with alternative experiences, such as dining aboard a stationary aircraft, to "better engage" with fans and customers.

Here is their full response:

"We decided to go ahead with these Discover Your Singapore Airlines experiences, rather than a one-off short tour flight, as we wanted to create activities unique to SIA that would better allow us to engage with our fans and customers during this time."

Sparked environmental concerns

The flights to nowhere were previously planned for end-October 2020.

Targeted at domestic passengers, these trips have no destination, but will instead depart from and land at Changi Airport.

Each flight will take about three hours, reported The Straits Times (ST).

A spokesperson told ST that SIA is considering several initiatives to engage its customers and members of the public.

"We will make an announcement at the appropriate time if we go ahead with these plans," the spokesperson added.

The idea, however, was met with some public outcry, as many were concerned about the environmental impact of the unnecessary flights.

In an earlier response to Mothership, SIA said that it was considering several initiatives and none of the plans had been firmed up then.

"Singapore Airlines is considering several initiatives that would allow us to continue engaging both our customers and members of the public. Currently, none of these plans have been firmed up. We would also like to thank our customers and members of the public for their interest and feedback. As previously indicated, we will make an announcement at the appropriate time if we go ahead with any of the initiatives."

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Top image via SIA