European airlines make empty flights to keep slots

The sky of Europe it is filling up with nearly empty polluting planes that serve no other purpose than to safeguard valuable airline space at some of the world’s major airports.

The omicron variant of the coronavirus has disrupted the airline industry, and as a result, getting people and goods from point A to point B has become an afterthought for thousands of people. flights.

This has created strange allies: environmentalists and airlines who advocate reducing empty or near-empty flights by putting pressure on the European Union (EU) —A world leader committed to fighting climate change — to change the rules about slots at airports.

“The EU is surely in climate emergency mode,” activist Greta Thunberg tweeted sarcastically this week, linking to an article about Brussels Airlines making unnecessary flights.

The company has said that if the EU does not take action, it will have to make about 3,000 trips this winter mainly to safeguard its network rights.

German giant Lufthansa said it would have to fly an additional 18,000 “unnecessary” flights during the winter in order to maintain its slots. Although the demand for flights increased during the holidays, the rest of the winter period could be slow as the omicron progresses around the world.

Slots at the largest airports are an extremely valuable commodity in the industry and, to maintain them, airlines must guarantee a high percentage of flights. That is why flights, even if they generate losses, must be maintained to ensure that companies maintain their spaces.

The practice was accepted despite pollution concerns, although the pandemic drop in flights put that into question. Typically airlines had to use 80% of their slots to preserve their rights, but the EU cut it down to 50% to ensure that as few empty or near-empty planes as possible cross the sky.