Visit the Emirates Aviation Experience

Have you ever heard of London visitor attraction the Emirates Aviation Experience? No, not the cable car, but a place where you can learn about the airline via a corporate experience. Of course you haven't, unless you've stumbled across it by chance or are slightly obsessive about these things, and neither had your author until he noticed it out of the corner of his eye yesterday whilst topping up an Oyster card at the cable car station. If you haven't heard of it it's probably because it is just a single room flogging the Emirates airline, but in an off-putting move that surely can't cover costs anyway, they charge you £3 to receive this sales pitch.


The whole thing probably looked good in the presentation at the creative agency who designed it, but yesterday when your author popped in, it was empty. Whilst the staff were friendly, professional and interested, there is actually very little to do once you're inside the "world’s first Aviation Experience" other than watch promotional videos and have your picture taken in a mock cockpit. There are a number of (empty) flight simulators, but it does not really become clear until you are already inside that 30 minutes on these simulators is a relatively pocket-punishing £45, which you have to go back outside to pay.

Otherwise, you are given the opportunity to sit in a aeroplane seat (cattle class), see a Lego jet engine and watch some videos about Emirates before arriving at a gift shop selling nothing you really want. There is an empty cafe, with outdoor seating and then you're off back to the real world. If it were free it would be an interesting corporate showcase but charging for this is a bit silly. Never mind, they do give some funding to a cable car which is good fun and for that your author is grateful.

For more, see http://www.aviation-experience.com/