If you were on Twitter on the right day, at the right time of day last week, you may have seen this little snippet:
MYSTERY FLIGHT!?! pic.twitter.com/U2qi5ejEyZ
— is maith liom dimitri (@DuckUtena) July 12, 2022
It garnered several creative replies, like this (they must’ve watched a lot of Let’s Make A Deal as a kid…):
And this:
And this one, which was my favorite:
mystery flight pic.twitter.com/Ibli17qJVJ
— SungWon Cho (@ProZD) July 13, 2022
What was the this Mystery Flight?
Mystery flights have been a “thing” for a while now. They appear to have originated during the COVID pandemic, which people were itching to go somewhere beyond their own borders.
First there were “flights to nowhere,” where people paid to go on a plane, fly over popular/famous spots, and land where you started. Airlines in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Brunei, Japan and Australia, among others, all offered flights to nowhere, which varied from 90 minutes to 7 hours. The flights were VERY popular.
Once people were getting vaccinated, “real” travel, although at the time still greatly limited, was a possibility. Step in “mystery flights,” where you flew and actually landed somewhere, but had no idea of where you going until the day of your flight.
The flights were done in Australia by Qantas in the Spring of 2021. It was an all-day affair, and besides their 1-day holiday, passengers got to enjoy:
- private charter Qantas B737 return flights,
- exclusive merchandise,
- inflight food and beverages,
- gift bag for all passengers,
- an activity tailored to showcase the best of the destination,
- a special lunch, and
- some flights will feature scenic flybys.
Those traveling in Business also received:
- additional gift bag items,
- Business food and beverages,
- priority boarding, and
- additional benefits during the activity.
Qantas is no stranger to mystery flights – they used to do something similar back in the 90s. More info about them is on this page of Qantas’ website.
Virgin Australia apparently offered similar mystery flights in the summer of 2021, but there’s less information about those.
Anyway, the thing is, THIS mystery flight wasn’t done by Qantas – it was Aer Lingus flight EI9350.
So, I checked FlightAware – THEY say that flight (which went to Munich) last took off in June, 2021.
So maybe the original poster on Twitter was just referencing an old photo?
But there’s even more mystery to this so-called mystery flight – several publications based in Ireland have said this “Mystery Flight” of Aer Lingus was one of a handful of flights that were cancelled at Dublin Airport that day. And, even more mysterious, there’s nothing on Aer Lingus’ website that refers to any sort of “mystery flight” that day.
Hmmm?
Aer Lingus was contacted by several publications about the “mystery flight” but the only response they’ve gotten is the airline, “has attributed recent cancellations to “operational reasons”, as it continues to deal with Covid-19 cases among staff and industrial action abroad.”
This isn’t the first “oddball” destination ever shown on Dublin Airport’s Arrivals/Destinations board. In the past there’s also been this:
(The flight actually went to northern Finland, within the Lapland region. Lapland is considered to be the “real” North Pole because it’s the official residence of Santa Claus.)
Is this the answer?
Someone on Twitter did make the suggestion that the mystery flight could have been a charter flight for a company with an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) or some other reason to hide the destination publicly (maybe a country of contention or a destination that’s a military base, etc.).
Right now, that’s probably about as good of a potential answer as we’re going to get. So maybe that was it. Or, who knows, maybe the photo was really a year old. I guess the mystery flight will remain a mystery.
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