On three occasions this past summer, Songshan Airport in downtown Taipei allowed 60 passengers the chance to check in, collect their boarding passes, clear security, wait at their gate and board a China Airlines Airbus. The plane’s destination? Nowhere. The groups were the lucky winners of a contest that let people role-play a day at the airport—satisfying their nostalgia for a time when air travel was still a fun and easy prospect. Once the passengers boarded, though, their trip came to an anticlimactic end. After being greeted by flight attendants, buckling up and sitting on the tarmac, fantasy travellers deplaned and went home.
