First Airlines

History

2020: Demand for virtual travel in Japan grew by 50%

In the middle of August, 2020 it became known that the Japanese airline First Airlines successfully offers virtual travel. The idea managed to be implemented thanks to technologies of virtual reality (VR), since the beginning of 2020 demand for such entertainment grew by 50%.

In spite of the fact that restrictions on free movement between the countries appeared from behind a pandemic of a coronavirus of COVID-19, residents of Japan can enjoy virtual travel. Since 2018 the First Airlines offers virtual tours to New York, Paris, Florence, Rome, Helsinki and also to Hawaii. During the restrictions caused by COVID-19, demand for tours using VR technologies grew by 50%.

The president of the company Hiroaki Abe noted:

We have clients who fly to Hawaii every year, they can get new feelings and here.

In Japan demand for virtual travel grew by 50%

Abe considers that virtual tours can be especially interesting and useful to people of old age or that who is not ready to go to so long travel.

The virtual travel assumes the same procedures which travelers undergo at a traditional trip. The passenger should be registered by the airport, receive all necessary documents, take the place in the imitated cabin. Onboard travelers expects service staff which carries out traditional instructing, then passengers experience simulation of take-off, the movement of the airplane, outside the window it is possible to observe clouds, lakes, mountains. During flight passengers enjoy a two-hour excursion in the selected direction, they can order dishes of different kitchens of the world. Besides, the First Airlines also offers an opportunity to visit this or that city during different eras.^[1]

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