Fasten your seatbelts and prepare... to stay at home
Tokyo, Japan. Looking for that perfect gift for the aviation fan who has everything? One Japanese airline has the answer: a seat from a retired jumbo jet. If you know someone who just can't get enough of sitting on an airplane, and you've got a spare $5,000, All Nippon Airways will sell you what it calls a "premium" seat from a decommissioned Boeing 747."Unlike the economy seats, these seats are wide and comfortable, and let users really relax,"said Chiho Matsukawa, a representative of the airlines. The company has removed all electrics -- including those attached to the button used to call the cabin crew -- and remodelled the legs so the seat can be used at home without being bolted down.
An All Nippon Airways (ANA) Boeing 747 is sprayed with water upon its landing from Okinawa to celebrate its final flight as the 747 is retired by Japanese airlines, at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on March 31, 2014. The 747 was first introduced to the country by Japan Airlines (JAL) in 1970 and became a workhorse on both domestic and international routes. At one time Japanese airlines owned more than 120 of them, each capable of carrying over 500 passengers.JAPAN OUT AFP PHOTO / JIJI PRESS People can buy this for 647,000 yen ($5,450). The Boeing 747 series entered commercial service in 1970 and became one of the most loved work-horses of the time. The 747-400D, was used on Japanese domestic routes with up to 569 seats. But the airline retired the last of the fleet in March this year, with a final flight from southern Okinawa to Tokyo. The seats will go on sale online from Christmas Day until February and will be delivered in March. In 2009, ANA sold six first-class and business-class seats from Boeing-747s that had run international routes, fetching up to 504,000 yen for each. Story by AFP
