Sweden-based OceanSky Cruises plans to offer leisurely air cruises on airships from February 2024.
Its first cruise, in an airship with a cabin slightly larger than two Boeing 737 Max jets set side by side, attached to a massive, helium-filled chamber, will be crewed by four pilots, Arctic explorer Robert Swan, a chef, and up to 16 passengers on a trip from Longyearbyen in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard to the North Pole.
The 36-hour round trip will offer a similar experience to that of luxury train or ocean cruising, where passengers have their own cabins while sharing plush common areas.
A six-day Southern Africa itinerary is also in the works. If negotiations go to plan, it will start in Windhoek or Livingstone and touch down on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, the Okavango Delta in Botswana, and Victoria Falls on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border.
CEO Carl-Oscar Lawaczeck founded OceanSky after researching sustainable transport for several years and is currently in talks with UK-based Hybrid Air Vehicles to use its Airlander 10 airships. The ultimate goal is to bring airships into mass market air travel.
Hybrid Air Vehicles CEO Tom Grundy said he expected a new Airlander 10 to be built by 2026.
