India Today web desk reported on May 26, 2021 the following story:
Man flies solo from Mumbai to Dubai on 360-seater flight for Rs 18k. Full story here. This might sound slightly difficult to believe but it’s true. A man paid Rs 18,000 for a flight ticket and travelled as the only passenger onboard an Emirates flight from Mumbai to Dubai on May 19. Bhavesh Javeri, 40, thus enjoyed an exclusive flight on a 360-seater Boeing 777 aircraft.
As per the travel restrictions imposed by the United Arab Emirates in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, only UAE nationals, holders of UAE Golden visa and members of diplomatic mission can fly from India to UAE.
Bhavesh Javeri has a Golden visa and had purchased the Rs 18,000 economy class ticket after making a call to the airline one week prior to the scheduled date of his departure. An official with an Indian carrier made an attempt to explain why the airline had the Boeing 777 burn about 17 tonnes of fuel worth Rs 8 lakh to fly a lone economy-class passenger. “It's probably a case of good passenger load on one direction, say, when they flew from Dubai to Mumbai, and then poor on the return leg. The airline would have operated the return leg anyway, even with zero paying passengers on board."
Now, I wonder what India Today would have reported if only they had known about my airplane journeys from Calicut to Chennai?
I was working as a Zonal Business Manager in a Pharmaceutical MNC (Novartis) based in Chennai. Often I was required to visit Calicut (Kozhikode) officially for my field work. I always liked Calicut for several reasons. We had an Area Manager named R G Menon who was always sporting a smile on his face and was very hard working. I loved Taj hotel in Calicut the best, out of all hotels in Kerala and Tamilnadu in which I used to stay on my business trips. I was fond of Vegetable Fried Rice served there as I consider it to be the best I have eaten anywhere. It was exciting to land in Calicut Airport as the plane will be taxiing upto to the end of run way from where you can over see a beautiful valley. When the airplane takes a U turn at the end point of its runway to go to the terminal building, through the window of the plane you can watch the valley which is a sight for Gods. I always wondered at the skill of the airplane pilot to apply just right pressure on the brake pedal (or is it a button on the electronic panel?) so as to stop the plane and preventing it to overrun and trip into the valley. No doubt I felt as if I partook in an adventure sport each time I landed at Calicut since there would be a lump in my throat for a few moments while the aircraft is taxiing. What is an adventure if there isn't a lump in the throat? That said, there is a waiting smile of my colleague, R G Menon when I deplane and walk out of the arrival lounge.
One more reason for my liking trips to Calicut is the the return journey to Chennai. Of the dozen odd journeys from Calicut to Chennai I made over the five years of my posting in Chennai, atleast 4-5 of them were in flights coming to Calicut from Dubai, Doha, Sharjah, Kuwait City, Muscat or Abu Dhabi. The services were operated by Air India or Indian Airlines. Calicut lacked facilities for upkeep and maintenance work of the Airbus 321 flown on India - middle East routes. So the plane with a seating capacity of 170-180 passengers used to be flown to Chennai from Calicut for this purpose. Most of such flights were sparsely used by passengers to go to Chennai from Calicut particularly on weekends and holidays. Most of the times there used to be hardly any passengers on these flights - if at all there were some. On atleast on 3-4 occasions, I remember myself to be the lone passenger.
If Bhavesh Javeri was privileged to be the lone passenger on a flight ONCE, I had such a privilege MULTIPLE TIMES. No doubt, the Kingly feeling you have while you are the lone passenger in an aircraft meant for 180 odd passengers is very special and would remain etched in your memory.
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