Air Dhakkan’s Chinese counterpart starts operations

The Air Dhakkan model of flight popularized by the Time magazine’s Miser of the Year 2007 Topinath has found new taker in China. A local tycoon in Shanghai has opened a new airline called Shandong Airlines that will operate on the low Air Dhakkan model to connect small towns across China.

Shandong Airlines will not be consuming any fuel or power on the ground. The plane will be taxied on the runway by convicts borrowed on lease from Chinese state prisons. Most of these convicts are in the slammer for small crimes. Some of them could be as small as putting up an anti-government status on Twitter. There will be no airhostesses and passengers will have to bring their own food\water and other requirements and some of them may even be asked to fly the plane in case the lone pilot falls sick.

The airline will not be using the services of the airport Air Traffic Control and relatives of passengers will be asked to guide the plane to land through their mobile phones. Passngers will have to pay extra for sitting near the window and in case they get too excited during the course of the flight, they will asked to pay an additional fee. Passengers will also have to pay extra to use the restrooms and to listen to safety instructions.

Topinath has been roped in by the airline as an operations consultant and most of the operational details published above are his ideas.

In pic: A Shandong Airlines plane getting ready for takeoff.