OceanSky bets on luxury ‘air cruises’ with first departure set for 2024

Sweden-based OceanSky Cruises AB is betting millions that pretty soon, travelers will be lining up for the chance to take a leisurely journey through the air—where being in transit is the point, rather than a hurdle between where you are and where you want to go.

OceanSky’s first “air cruise” departure is currently slated for February 2024. Up to 16 passengers, plus eight crew members (including four pilots, a chef, and the expedition leader), will make their way from Longyearbyen in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard to the North Pole in a 136-foot, 2,100-square-foot cabin attached to a massive, helium-filled air chamber. (That cabin area is slightly larger than two Boeing 737 Max jets set side by side.)

The airship will cruise for 15 hours at an altitude low enough for wildlife spotting (about 1,000 feet.) It will then land for a six-hour sojourn, during which guests will either embark upon a hike or go cross-country skiing, take a dip in Arctic waters, and enjoy a catered lunch in the snow before making the 15-hour return journey.

Led by polar explorer and environmental activist Robert Swan, the 36-hour round trip will offer some of the same rewards as luxury train or ocean cruising: a relaxing ride in which passengers have their own amenity-filled cabins while sharing plush common areas. On longer itineraries, one could travel without the tedium of having to unpack at each stop. Also in the works is a six-day Southern Africa itinerary starting in Windhoek, Namibia, or Livingstone, Zambia, then touching down on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, Botswana’s Okavango Delta, and Victoria Falls on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border before circling back.

That is, if negotiations go to plan.