Covid-19: Airline offers meals on parked planes

The experience came complete with crew announcements.

Airline food might be one of the last things people are missing during the pandemic, but one Japanese carrier has customers flocking to sample luxury in-flight meals on its parked planes.

Foie gras, crabmeat mousse and wagyu beef fillet are all on the menu aboard aircraft belonging to Japan's All Nippon Airways -- for a cool $540.

The airline launched its "restaurant with wings" for just a single day on Wednesday, but with demand proving sky-high, they are now planning to expand the offering.

The restaurant offered either first class or business class meals usually served on international flights, with "passengers" boarding a Boeing 777 at Tokyo's Haneda airport holding tickets designed to look like boarding passes.

The experience came complete with crew announcements, according to the company, with meals served in cabin seats, though seatbelts were not required.

Demand appears strong, despite the prices -- 59,800 yen for first-class meals and 29,800 yen for a business class offering.

"The tickets for the restaurant sold out in a day," a spokeswoman told AFP on Thursday, and the company now plans an additional 11 dates.

ANA Holdings' nine-month net loss came to 309.6 billion yen ($3 billion) -- also a record -- and a sharp drop from the 86.4 billion yen in profit it logged during the same April-December period last year.