There were no extra seats on the Wright Brothers' flying machine at Kitty Hawk (1903) or on Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic air crossing on the 'Spirit of St. Louis" (1927). Subsequent commerical aviation landmarks -- Pan Am's inaugural China Clipper (1935), BOAC's first commercial jet flight from London to Johannesberg (1952), United's introduction of the Boeing 747 into regular service (1969) and the first (1976) and last (2003) commerical flights of the Concorde -- were increasingly recognized a special occasions in commercial transport and treated as public events. Now, highly honored Singapore Airlines, the world's first airline to put the new Airbus A380 double-decker super-jumbo into service, is auctioning seats on the first commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney and return in October 2007. All proceeds from the sale of tickets on the first flight will be donated to charities. Considering eBay to be a global marketplace, the airline will auction the seats online. All passengers will receive a personalized ceremonial certificate confirming they were part of the first-ever commercial A380 flight. ExxonMobil Aviation announced that will donate the fuel for these flights. significantly increasing the amount going to charity, and PayPal will rebate a portion of its fees and charges to help support the charities.
Proceeds will go in equal thirds to Singapore’s Community Chest, one-third split between the Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, both in Sydney, and one-third to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).
Singapore Airlines and eBay will conduct the auction a few weeks prior to the flight. It is possible to pre-register for notification on auction details, including the date of the flight, on http://www.singaporeair.com/a380. It's not anything I can afford, but I find the concept of linking a history-making inaugural and an on-line charity auction to be intriguing. Still another welcome to the 21st century.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment