The miracle of flight feels slightly less miraculous these days. Endless delays, cramped seating and shortchanged amenities feel par for the course, and one can easily forget the wondrous fact that you’re hurtling above planet Earth, soaring above the clouds and across the skies to your destination of choice. In the olden days, you were limited to the fallibility of your outrigger canoe or horse-drawn carriage. It’s not hyperbolic to invoke the invention of the wheel when reminding oneself to stay calm and carry on in coach.

Certain airlines, however, make the flight itself a coveted experience and the journey truly the destination. Their aircraft are usually unique both in design and destination, whether it’s Safarilink planes to the East African grasslands of Kenya or Yeti Airlines flights to the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal. They also, naturally though not literally, fly under the radar. Boarding a private charter headed to the Canadian Arctic or an Airbus painted with pandas en route to Western China requires a certain level of adventure and innovation when it comes to traditional vacation planning.

Luckily, we’ve eliminated the guesswork for you. Read on for four airlines you’ve likely never heard of that could be the basis for booking your next airborne getaway. Whether it’s a tented safari in Tanzania or a tundra buggy tour in Manitoba, we guarantee the act of flying there will prove just as fun as arriving at your long-awaited destination. Happy travels!

Air Excel © Antonella865 | Dreamstime

AIR EXCEL
Contrary to popular belief, an African safari doesn’t begin once you’ve loaded your luggage into the open-air Jeep; it starts when your bush plane ascends into the clouds above the savannah. The view from the skies is often just as striking as the one from the back seat of your all-terrain, four-wheel drive: the plodding herds of elephants, massive even from above; the undulating hordes of antelope gathering in the grass; the giraffes nibbling the highest leaves of an acacia tree. In fact, the region’s famous Maasai Mara translates to “spotted plains” because of the leopard-like patterns of the shadows cast down from the clouds above.

When I boarded my Air Excel charter in Tanzania this winter, I was headed to the endless plains of the Serengeti to a back-to-basics Entara safari, where the real luxury is losing oneself in the wilderness (sleeping beneath stargazing tents in the forest; WiFi not necessary).

© Katherine Parker-Magyar

If you haven’t heard of Air Excel, established in 1997, you’re not alone. The airline’s hub lies in the equally under-the-radar town of Arusha, the country’s safari capital nestled at the base of Mount Meru. Air Excel offers regional scheduled flights and private charters to the bush (Serengeti, Kilimanjaro) and the beach (Zanzibar). And when it comes to African aviation, Air Excel offers bush-flying at its best: tiny planes, personalized charters and boutique boarding experiences.

CALM AIR
Moving on from the endless plains of Africa to the frigid tundra of Hudson Bay, Calm Air provides your gateway to the most remote regions of the Canadian Arctic. I first experienced Calm Air when flying to a Frontiers North safari in Churchill last fall; the airline is the only carrier to the Polar Bear Capital of the World. Tickets sell out fast, so reserving your seat is half the battle. I boarded my pre-dawn flight from Winnipeg and landed upon the icy fields of northern Manitoba in the early morning, the fiery light of the sub-Arctic sun blazing a rich orange as we touched down in the desolate, snow-covered wilderness.

© Calm Air

The airline’s name seemingly serves as a reminder to stay calm before encountering the north country’s apex predator. This niche Canadian airline specializes in ferrying passengers to the nation’s most remote northern regions, not only within Manitoba but also across the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, catering to isolated areas where road access is unavailable for most (if not all) of the year.

© Katherine Parker-Magyar

So to fly Calm Air you must first have sought out adventure — which is fitting, considering the airline’s origin story. In the 1950s founders Arnold and Gail Morberg built a fishing camp on Black Lake in northern Saskatchewan and, upon venturing into the wild, realized they needed safe air transport not only for themselves but also for their guests. By 1962 Calm Air acquired a charter license, and operations in the Arctic seaport of Churchill started in 1975. Fifty years later the region is as wild — and the airline as reliable — as ever. But book your flights now if you are seeking the northern lights … your best bet, after all, is to take to the skies.

SICHUAN AIRLINES
Few sights prove more cheerful than an airplane painted with pandas, and such was the case when I boarded my flight to China aboard Sichuan Airlines. I was flying the Panda Route from Los Angeles to Chengdu, site of the airline’s headquarters and famous for its pandas.

Sichuan Airlines © Hupeng | Dreamstime

The Airbus A350-900 that ferries passengers along the route features oversized paintings of pandas on the exterior, and a similar “panda-monium” ensues within: The cabin itself offers a tribute to the bears, down to the headrests, pillows, paper cups and onboard snacks. (Every panda illustration represents an actual adopted panda in Chengdu.)

The airline’s international network of flights, known as the “Panda Network,” supports panda conservation, funding research and protections for the endangered species via a partnership with the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. This includes the adoption of a baby female panda named 3U (nicknamed YouYou), whose cartoon likeness is the airline’s official mascot. When you land in the airport at Chengdu, YouYou guides you around the airport; I’d never seen more panda stuffed animals at gift shops in my life. For an American traveler the LAX flight offers a unique opportunity to fly the Panda Route, which otherwise mainly connects Chengdu to domestic hubs — Beijing, Shanghai and others — or to two cities in Oceania, Sydney and Auckland.

The carrier also aims to promote tourism to Western China and protect the wildlife and nature around Sichuan. Though Sichuan Airlines is the largest airline in Western China, it remains largely unknown outside of Asia. Founded in 1986, it operates a fleet of more than 180 aircraft. Though many of the routes are domestic, it also operates internationally. But once you fly Sichuan Airlines, you will never forget it.

Tradewind Aviation’s Pilatus PC-12 taking off from Saint Barthélemy Airport © Zhukovsky | Dreamstime

TRADEWIND
Forget first class; the ultimate luxury these days is to avoid the hustle and bustle of airport crowds and terminally long TSA lines altogether. Flying private is, for some, a reality, and for the rest of us a long-held fantasy that’s almost too out-of-reach to truly covet. Enter Tradewind, operating as a private and semiprivate commuter airline with scheduled shuttle service to seasonal hot spots along the East Coast and in the Caribbean. The sophistication of the locales speaks to the taste level of the clientele: Think Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket for a New England summer or St. Barth’s and Anguilla for a snowbird winter in the West Indies.

The commuter airline caters to passengers based along the East Coast — Boston, New York and Palm Beach — looking to frequent various resort towns within the United States and the Caribbean. The airline sells by-the-seat tickets on small, luxury aircraft (the Pilatus PC-12 turboprop — made in Switzerland, of course — and the Cessna Citation CJ3, among others). When I boarded my first Tradewind flight two summers ago in Martha’s Vineyard, I found myself entirely alone on my tiny aircraft headed to Westchester. I felt like I’d arrived before I even touched down at my destination. The best part? As it’s not actually a private jet, you don’t have to feel guilty for the exorbitant environmental havoc such antisocial airborne behavior wreaks on the world around you. So you can fly like a billionaire without feeling the accompanying guilt once you land safely on the ground.

To the Caribbean and beyond!