News that Air New Zealand will be grounding its entire Boeing 777 fleet for at least a year has fuelled a creative conversation about potential uses for the aircraft while they are on the ground.
While most of the airline's 777s will be sent to the US, three of them will remain in Auckland.
Callers to The Ryan Bridge Show on Magic Talk on Thursday came up with many possibilities, their ideas ranging from viable money making opportunities to highly unlikely, wacky suggestions.
Scenic flights of Aotearoa
These have been done in the past and so long as people are willing to pay, there's no reason why they couldn't happen again.
Imagine leaving Auckland, travelling down the west coast of the North Island or around Mt Ruapehu, across the Southern Alps and Mt Cook to Queenstown and Fiordland, then hooking around the bottom of Stewart Island before cruising back up the east coast to Auckland - all while enjoying some lunch and a glass of wine.
"Kiri Te Kanawa could be on the plane," Ryan Bridge joked during the Magic Talk segment.
Walking down the aisle
It's been done before, getting married onboard an aircraft. Each family could have a side of the cabin and the bride could enter from the rear door and walk up the aisle to business class where the ceremony can take place. You could even have the celebrant dressed as a pilot!
Baked on a plane
I don't think the referendum result is the only thing that could get in the way of making this a reality. While the cabin is ideal for being climate controlled, you're unlikely to see cannabis being cultivated onboard an aircraft of our national airline anytime soon.
Stand up comedy
"You'd better tell the Captain we've got to land as soon as we can. This woman has to be taken to a hospital."
"A hospital? What is it?"
"It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now."
There are many comedy routines and even entire comedy acts, such as Pam Ann that are written about flying, and where better to listen and laugh, than while flying on airplane at the same time.
Drag racing
"Go to one end of the runway, then thrash it out like it's a drag strip."
One of the more specific ideas that was called in to Magic Talk was to essentially run the engines at full throttle and race down the runway, before coming to a thrilling stop, all while somehow drinking beer in business class. I don't think this caller has seen what a rejected take off looks like and I don't see the airline will be keen on "thrashing" their multi-million dollar aircraft.
Mile High Club
While no one quite had the guts to call in and suggest 'mile high club sessions' there were plenty of text messages into the radio station doing just that. One even suggested a mile high club party where all 350 or more passengers could get involved.
This is even less likely than the runway drag race.
Zero Gravity
The final suggestion was for the airline to operate zero gravity flights.
This is when an aircraft climbs to essentially its maximum possible height before pointing the nose down and racing back towards Earth, giving those onboard a sense of "weightlessness". While it's used to train astronauts, it's not something you'd want to fit in before a nice lunch and a glass of chardonnay.
Of all the suggestions, the scenic flights option is probably something that could actually work. What better way to see the country, than from cruising above it for a couple of hours?
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