Airlines woo passengers with flights to … nowhere!

This photo, provided by the Incheon International Airport press pool, shows passengers and flight attendants on a Jeju Air flight to nowhere on Oct. 23, 2020. (Yonhap)

SEOUL: Lee Joo-mi, 25, didn’t have high expectations when she arrived at Incheon International Airport on Oct. 23. All she had signed up for was a flight from Incheon … to Incheon.

The coronavirus pandemic forced the graduate student to return home early from her university in Leicester, Britain. What she didn’t know was that it was also pushing airlines to begin fun-filled, entertainment-packed “flights to nowhere” to survive the economic blow dealt by the infectious disease.

That day, Lee and her boyfriend, Shim Yo-sup, flew over the peninsula in a heart shape — from Incheon to Gunsan, Gwangju, Yeosu, Sacheon, Busan, Pohang and back to Incheon. The trip took under two hours.

YONHAP