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This photo taken on Sept. 1, 2020, shows visitors enjoying business class seats on a retired Airbus 330 aircraft converted into a cafe at an attraction site outside Pattaya in Chonburi province. | Photo by Mladen ANTONOV / AFP
BANGKOK, Thailand – With millions around the world trapped at home due to the pandemic, “airplane cafes” in Thailand offer customers the opportunity to pretend they’re in heaven, and the idea seems to have taken off.
Aboard a retired airliner in the coastal city of Pattaya, coffee drinkers settle into first-class style seats and pose for photos next to the top lockers.
Boarding passes in hand, some “passengers” even opt for a cabin tour.
“With this coffee I can sit first class and also waste my time in the cabin pretending to be the captain of the plane,” Thipsuda Faksaithong, 26, told AFP.
“It is fun.”
This photo taken on Sept. 1, 2020 shows visitors enjoying coffee on a retired Airbus 330 aircraft converted into a cafe at an attraction site outside Pattaya in Chonburi province. | Photo by Mladen ANTONOV / AFP
Chalisa Chuensranoi, 25, said her visit was as good as any trip she had taken before the pandemic, which closed Thailand’s borders in March.
“Sitting here in the first-class section … it really gives me the feeling of being on an airplane, navigating the air,” he said.
At another cafe at the Thai Airways national airline headquarters in Bangkok, hungry diners seem to have missed their plane meal as they gobble up spaghetti carbonara and Thai-style beef served on plastic trays by the cabin crew.
But for Intrawut Simapichet, 38, who came to the cafe with his wife and baby, the experience is more than a meal.
“I’m usually a person who travels a lot, and when we are forced to stay at home … it’s a bit depressing,” he said as other passengers posed with luggage next to a fake airplane door.
“(The coffee) relieves what is missing.”
Thailand was the first country outside of China to detect a case of coronavirus, but it has since recorded a low number, with around 3,400 infections and 58 deaths.
However, travel restrictions have gutted the tourism-dependent economy, while Thais have been stuck due to quarantine requirements in other countries.
The government is considering travel bubbles with select countries that also have low tolls.
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