Plane That Never Takes Off Draws Visitors In India

An Indian entrepreneur is giving people who can't afford to fly the chance to experience air travel for less than $5.

Except entrepreneur Bahadur Chand Gupta's Airbus 300, located in Delhi, never actually leaves the ground.

Passengers pay for the experience of sitting on a plane, listening to announcements and being waited on by flight attendants.

The plane may only have one wing, no lighting and out of order toilets, but that doesn't matter to visitors. It does have air-conditioning powered by a generator.

Gupta says about 40 passengers turn up each Saturday to line up for boarding cards.

Customers buckle themselves in and watch a safety demonstration, including regular announcements by 'Captain' Gupta such as "we will soon be passing through a zone of turbulence" and "we are about to begin our descent into Delhi."

"Some of my passengers have crossed the country to get on this plane," says Gupta who bought the plane in 2003 from an insurance company.

In a country where 99% of the population have never experienced air travel, the 'virtual journeys' have proved a roaring success.

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