Several of Europe’s airlines, most notably Lufthansa group and its subsidiaries, are flying empty or nearly-empty flights in order to keep their valuable slot rights at tightly-controlled airports. Lufthansa has reported over 18,000 of these so-called ‘ghost flights.’
The situation exists because as in the U.S., busy (in normal times) airports have a limited number of slots available for take-offs or landings, and rules in the EU require that an airline use at least 80% of its slots or lose them. Even with a temporary reduction to 50% because of the pandemic, airlines are having trouble meeting the standard, which is scheduled to revert to 80% at the end of March.
Europe’s airline recovery has not been as strong as in the U.S., both because of tighter restrictions and because Europe has a more robust rail network as an alternative to flying on many routes. The recent spread of the Omicron variant has put a halt, for the moment, to further recovery, and airlines are asking the EU to at least continue the 50% rule, and possibly grant them more slack.
Ironically, at a time when there are public campaigns for less flying to reduce carbon footprint and help limit climate change, including bans in France and Germany on short hops, the airlines say they are being forced to waste fuel and produce pollution to avoid losing their places.
