Watch: This Indian expat in Dubai has a unusual pastime to cherish flight journeys

Dubai: Most folks continue to keep photographs, films and souvenirs to cherish reminiscences of their outings. But Indian expat Sahad Sattar has been holding airline boarding passes instead, even just after the air miles are credited.

Hailing from the south Indian condition of Kerala, Sahad, 45, started off this hobby because his initially flight on the now-defunct East-West Airline from Calicut to Bombay (Mumbai) and the Air India flight from Bombay to Dubai in September 1995. A travel supervisor in Dubai, Sahad has gathered the boarding passes of all of his 251 flights to over 20 international locations on 30 airways. He has a overall assortment of about 500 boarding passes of his whole relatives of eight.

This week, the father of six received his 252nd boarding move when he took a “special” flight from Dubai to Kannur in Kerala on Wednesday.

With this journey, he marked one more milestone. He was aboard the inaugural flight from Kannur Intercontinental Airport to Abu Dhabi Intercontinental Airport on December 9, 2018. He was also a member of the “Historic Flight” WhatsApp group of all over 100 expats who celebrated the airport’s to start with anniversary by traveling on the very same route on the exact same working day in 2019 by donning uniform jackets.

Talking to Gulf Information, Sahad shared his pleasure of traveling at the time yet again to the airport in his hometown on its next anniversary soon after possessing had to place the brakes on his regular flight journeys through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pointing to himself in the photo of the initially anniversary excursion posted by Gulf News, he explained he skipped his friends and group members who flew together yet again to reenact their aspiration journey and also to search for further more growth of the airport. Even so, he was delighted to get his future boarding go in his assortment through his journey to see his mom on the 2nd anniversary of the airport.

Aside from the boarding pass of his maiden flight from Kannur, the prized possession in Sahad’s assortment is a boarding move of the historic “Tolerance Flight” – EK2019 – operated by Emirates to mark the Year of Tolerance on November 29, 2019. “Those two flights ended up actually exclusive,” he said, conveying their significance.

“Kannur is my hometown and staying an expatriate for 25 years, I have struggled a good deal to as I experienced to vacation by highway for practically the exact same time of the flight from Dubai before when I experienced to rely on Calicut or Cohin airport. Now, it usually takes fewer than half an hour for me to attain my home.”

“I am absolutely sure Kannur airport, which not too long ago reported two million travellers, will one day grow to be a top airport in India. I am very pleased that I was one of the inaugural flight travellers. I had long gone home for just 5 days only to capture that flight on return.”

He said he felt privileged to be a part of Emirates Tolerance Flight which flew 500 passengers from 145 nationalities, breaking the Guinness Globe Record for carrying men and women of the “most nationalities.” “I to start with heard about that flight from an e-mail from Emirates Skywards which questioned people today to sign-up for this distinctive flight. I am very pleased that I managed to get a seat on the flight that bought a Guinness Environment File and showcased the range of the folks who stay in this region of tolerance.”

Boarding passes gathered throughout his honeymoon flight from Mumbai to Hong Kong in 2000, which was a surprise reward to his wife Nadiya, and subsequent family members visits with their Dubai-born small children — Bilal, Basil, Maryam, Ammaar, Zainab and Sara — to Bangkok, Singapore, Malaysia, Amsterdam, Turkey, Usa, Prague and many others. are also unforgettable types for Sahad.

Gulf Information had beforehand penned about how his sons Bilal and Basil had to travel for 46 hours to access Dubai from Kerala by flying by means of the US owing to vacation limitations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Definitely, the initial issue that Sahad collected from them when they reached home were the boarding passes of their flights from Calicut to Delhi, from Delhi to Chicago and from Chicago to Dubai.

Questioned if he had any intention to set a file by chasing this exclusive passion, Sahad replied in the unfavorable. “This was definitely not planned. Soon after a few of flight excursions, I made a decision to obtain the boarding passes of all my flights anytime attainable,” he stated,

Admitting that his profession in the vacation business has motivated the selection, Sahad mentioned: “Ten yrs ago, I made use of to function with diverse travel businesses and I traveled due to the fact of employees tickets. My latest career also will involve a good deal of journey. Of course, my occupation has motivated me in picking out this pastime.”

He reported he utilised to accumulate ticket jackets also till airways started off issuing eTickets from 2008. “Some many years back all airlines began on-line verify-in and issued on the web boarding passes. I constantly verify-in on the web. Even though there is no want to have bodily boarding passes, I request check out-in counters to reprint the boarding passes for this intent only.”

“When you see these boarding passes, they carry back again all precious times like the to start with trip, the honeymoon journey, relatives visits, other outings that are not forgettable,” reported Sahad, noting that his most current excursion carrying protective equipment during the pandemic would keep on being a specific a single.

Sahad said he is informed that boarding passes can reveal very important passenger facts and hence they should not be discarded irresponsibly as criminals could misuse them. “Anyhow, mine are generally harmless with me,” he said, laughing.

Sahad had safely saved all his boarding passes in ordinary folders and has now acquired them framed in his apartment in Dubai. “Every two to a few months, I check them and make guaranteed there is no spoilage. Just about all of them are in great condition.”

There could be many far more repeated flyers in the UAE who have taken a number of far more flights than Sahad did. But he considers his collection of boarding passes as his prized possession and now programs to laminate them.

The largest selection of airline boarding passes belongs to a different Indian, according to Guinness Guide of Planet Records. K. Ullas Kamath possessed 3,030 passes as confirmed in Bengaluru on August 15, 2014, states the website of Guinness.