This popular eatery is being transformed into a restaurant in Shamirpet after buying Air India’s first Airbus 320 flight.
Updated – Thu, 11/24/22 at 11:57pm
Hyderabad: Could the plane be a destination rather than just a means of transportation? Yes, says Mohd Abdul Majeed, owner of popular eatery Pista House.
Hyderabad will open its first flying restaurant in Shamirpet in December, and Pista House recently bought Air India’s first Airbus-320 and brought it to the city.
Abdul Majeed, which opened its first restaurant chain in Shalibanda in 1997, now has 32 outlets in Hyderabad and is in the process of building its 33rd flying restaurant.
“The aircraft, the first in the Airbus 320 series in India, has arrived in Hyderabad. It is working hard to become Hyderabad’s first flying restaurant,” he said.
The plane, which was brought here by road, made news after it got stuck in an underpass in Andhra Pradesh. “AP police and local residents helped us deal with the situation and sent it through different channels,” Abdul Majid said.
The disassembled plane is being refurbished into a restaurant, which is expected to open for customers to enjoy in December.
“We bought the plane for around Rs 7.5 lakh and plan to invest another Rs 3-4 million to design it as a restaurant,” said franchise owner Sridhar.
Abdul Majid said the idea behind the restaurant was to introduce a new concept to the city. “Hyderabad is one of the most dynamic cities and we had to think about the concept out of the box. We then narrowed it down to an actual plane and turned it into a restaurant,” he said.
Try to make sure a place gives the exact feel of an airport. “We will have runways for planes, tickets will be like boarding passes and passengers will have to go through security checks like they would at an airport,” he said.
The plane has a fixed seating capacity of 150 and is now working on a strategy for how food will be served – such as vegetarian and non-vegetarian in-flight meals, or a buffet.
