Up in the Air: Meet the Man Who Flies Around the World for Free
In three hours, he’ll be on a flight bound for the States, and to his dismay he finds the VIP lounge still locked. With a pout, he plops down among the waiting area’s bleak cookie-cutter chairs. Assuming the death of the Hobby doesn’t prove imminent, Schlappig repeatedly insists that his life can go on forever this way. But he also announces, genuinely, that he wants to settle down one day. “That’s exactly what he wants to do,” says Pourazari. “But he can’t. He doesn’t know how.”
Passing the time here in the dark morning contrasts starkly with the most cherished thrill of his life in first class: After the champagne bottles are empty, he’ll be struck with the sudden urge to return to New Delhi. There, tucked in a corner of Indira Gandhi International Airport, he’ll find a perch and study the arrivals hall. “You see a whole family, 20 people, picking up someone at the airport,” he says. “People with signs, people with balloons, with flowers. There’s something beautiful about that.” He’ll watch for a few hours, pondering the stories behind the reunions and the cries of laughter that come with each new flight. But he still can’t decide if what he’s just seen is a vision of his past or the future.
“The world is so big, I can keep running,” Schlappig says. “At the same time, it makes you realize the world is so small.” After a long pause, he continues, “I want what I can’t have. There’s nothing gratifying about that. It’s crazy, and it’s fucked up. I’d still like to think I’m a reasonably happy person.” He grins. “Despite all that.”
Soon, a message comes over the PA system in muffled Japanese. He leaps to his feet, still the 10th-grader at the bell, transfixed once more by the prospect of escaping for the weekend and exploring the world. Schlappig angles through the terminal, the low purr of his rolling carry-on resounding across the cages of an empty bazaar. He’s picking up the pace now, bounding down the empty hallway, ready to take off. At sunrise, the shops will reopen, the terminal will roar back to life. But by then, he will be gone.