A pilot in the US takes 112 friends to Hawaii on a retirement flight

Keith Rosenkranz, 64, retired at the end of February after 33 years as a pilot with American carrier Delta Airlines. For his last flight, he invited family, friends, colleagues and neighbors to take him on a 24-hour trip to the American island state.

Covid

Rosenkranz told Business Insider that he came up with the idea A special farewell flight Because many of his colleagues could not make the farewell flight they had hoped for during the Corona period.

“We canceled a lot of flights to Europe at that time. A friend of mine could only fly from Atlanta to Orlando and back. He got his wife a ticket and that was it.”

Rosencrans, who flew for the U.S. Air Force before becoming a commercial pilot, received an employee discount on renting a plane, but had to pay deep pockets for his farewell.

Annual salary

The trip cost him 'a good year's salary', but he says it was more than worth it. “It's really priceless to be able to do something so big, a whirlwind trip with family and friends. And you don't want to be dead rich.”

In Hawaii she renewed her wedding vows, among other things. Now he enjoys a well-deserved pension, although he doesn't consider his piloting a job. “I always say I haven't worked since 1983, when I worked in a supermarket. After that, I only got paid to fly airplanes.”