Earlier this year, Seawings launched Air Cruise, celebrating how luxury travel should be about both the journey and the destination.

We believe this concept is a worldwide first. However, there’s an intriguing, albeit very short and unsuccessful, history of air Cruise. Packed with comedy and bizarre ideas, this blog looks at the origins of air cruise.

A 15-Day Non-Stop Hot Air Balloon Cruise around the World

If there was a dictionary definition of air cruise it would be the idea of cruising in the air. Planes have obviously being doing this for almost a hundred years, but even when sipping a cocktail in the upstairs bar of a new Airbus 380 you couldn’t argue it was an air cruise; it’s just a flight.

More in keeping with the beauty of the journey are the adventurers attempting to fly around the world in a Hot Air Balloon. British businessman Richard Branson has seen his balloon deflated multiple times, but even though he owns the airline Virgin Atlantic, he still prefers to cruise in a hot air balloon.

The first successful solo around the world hot air balloon cruise was achieved by Steve Fossett in 2002. It took him six attempts and the successful flight took almost 15 days! It almost sounds as fictional as Phileas Fogg going around the world in 80 days in 1873. Fossett set off in Australia and landed in…Australia. So while it was an epic journey, an air cruise should also be about the destination.

A Bizarre Air Cruise in a Hydrogen Airship That Never Left the Ground

Seymourpowell created an aircruise in 2009. Their concept was a hydrogen-powered airship that would resemble a luxury hotel and calmly travel across the world. There would be glass floors to enjoy the views and the “idea was to create a form of transport so breathtaking, you wouldn’t want the journey to end.” On the concept videos it looks like something from a sci-fi movie, an outlandish spaceship from a future millennium.

The world was impressed. Newspapers called it a new era in luxury travel. It won an award for innovation and design from Conde Nest Magazine.

A 1930’s Air Cruise into the Unknown

In the last three years, luxury travel companies have started to offer air and ship cruise itineraries to Antarctica. The concept is simple – fly to the white continent in a small plane, then transfer to a ship that skirts along the ice line. But flying to an unknown destination is hardly a new thing in the travel industry.

Back in the 1930s, seaplanes – or flying boats as they were known – hopped across the world on aerial journeys from the UK to Australia. They touched down in Dubai, when the Emirate was just a big sandy desert without roads or electricity. Looking like lavish gentlemen’s clubs in the sky, the flying boats had a saloon bar, a smoking room, and beds to sleep on during the journey. Back in 1937 they probably sounded as bizarre as a hydrogen airship sounds today. Yet these luxury seaplanes made if off the ground and offered the world’s first luxury air travel experience. You can read more about their fascinating story in this article.

Air Cruise – The Next Generation of Luxury Travel

Seawings launched Air Cruise in 2016 and we believe it’s the first of its kind in the world. While air cruising has been tried, this concept has never left the ground before. Air Cruise uses seaplanes to connect the most exclusive UAE travel experiences, hence an aerial cruise, much like people have enjoyed luxury ocean cruises for decades. Travellers explore from the air on sightseeing flights, then discover a variety of destinations in the UAE and Oman. We’ve already taken dozens of passengers on their first Air Cruise. But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s the concept of Air Cruise as written about by the world.

• Times of Oman
• Travel Daily
• Fifty Sky Shades
• Travel and Tourism Network
• Buro 24/7 Lifestyle
• Muscat Daily
• One Coast Magazine
• RusTourism News
• Holiday Place
• Travel and Tour World

For more information about Air Cruise and to book visit the Air Cruise section of our Seawings Lifestyle site.

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