Monday, April 04, 2011

A Bird? A Plane? Sailor Moon!

Here's a bit of a different kind of Sailor Moon appearance - this time in the air! We're going to give you some background first, from the press release we found on Skyscanner's website. Please keep in mind that this was an April Fool's day joke by Skyscanner, the airline in question doesn't really exist. (you can skip to the end to read about Sailor Moon's appearance, if you like)

Skyscanner, an Italian comparison website for flights recently reported that 59% of travelers would prefer a family only in-flight section and some airlines had seriously considered this option, as well as the ability to offer flights with no children.

Urchin Airways, a fictitious new airline based in the United Kingdom, has decided to capitalize on the demand for separate flights with a different perspective. With over 1 million children flying unaccompanied every year, they decided to provide a specialized service geared to the needs of children traveling without adults. The first available is a flight to New York that took off from London the morning of April first. Soon there will also be flights to Italy, probably to Rome or Milan.

Aside from staff, the "no adults" flights will not allow any passengers over 16 years of age. In addition to a full crew on board, there will also be qualified nannies, ensuring safety and comfort for the duration of the flight.

While the majority of unaccompanied minors fly alone because their parents can not travel with them, a spokesman for Urchin Airways has indicated that there is growing demand from parents to have the opportunity to travel separately, even on occasions where the whole family is traveling to the same destination. Urchin Airways will launch a service for adults only flying parallel to meet the demands of these parents, as well as other adults who want to fly without children on board. The two services will take off and land within minutes of each other, ensuring that parents and children are reunited without issue.

Urchin Airways cabin crew will be dressed as clowns and will oversee a library of video games with a gaming zone. Activities such as racing eggs on spoons will take place in the aisle and the upholstery will be stronger, to accommodate more children kicking the seats. Whereas on regular flights children are accused of making too much noise, here they will be encouraged by the challenge "Who can shout louder?"

The menu will be tailored to the palates of children and include items such as chewing gum, gingerbread men, and string cheese. Food will be served by Oompa-Loompas, who will sing to the children while they work. Rather than offering hot towels, Teletubbies will be used for cleaning and drying the faces of children after eating. And, on flights during the night, Sailor Moon will tuck in their blankets.

Note: Urchin translates in English to '"little mischievous baby."


Although we learned that this was a joke initiated by Skyscanner, we found this was a fun and unusual place for a mention of Sailor Moon and thought you might enjoy reading about it. Too bad we won't really be seeing Sailor Moon on an airline!

2 comments:

SparklingBlue said...

Unless they think up an SM-inspired paint job for a plane (they have Pokemon planes, so why not our favorite heroine?_

Sailor Sapphire said...

This sounded like a half-decent idea to make flying less stressful for kids! Too bad its not true. I missed the drama this weekend and I just have a few words to say to Elly. I love Miss Dream fansubs, and their mistakes in translations have inspired me to learn Japanese and maybe one day I can work as a translator for them and make things better for all fans. I understand that she wanted to have some fun on April Fool's Day but lying about receiving communiques from Funimation wasn't the right thing to do. Even I know when someone is caught in a web of lies. I will continue to support Miss Dream and their translations and Moon Chase too. She may have hurt some fans with what she has done but it is all water under the bridge for this fan.