EU under pressure after airlines fly thousands of empty ‘ghost flights’ to keep airport slots

Carriers must abide by a ‘use it or lose it’ policy

Lufthansa Group admitted to flying thousands of empty flights (Getty Images)

The European Union is facing increasing pressure to drop rules that necessitate airlines flying thousands of empty flights, dubbed “ghost flights”, in order to keep coveted airport slots.

EU regulations dictate that carriers must operate a certain percentage of their scheduled flights in order to hang onto their take-off and landing slots at airports – failure to do so means they forfeit the slots.

Pre-pandemic, this was set at a minimum of 80 per cent of scheduled flights. Since widespread travel disruption caused by coronavirus, the level has been cut to 50 per cent, but it remains difficult for some airlines to hit even this more modest target amid border closures and restrictions.

Lufthansa Group, the parent company that owns brands including Lufthansa, Swiss International Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings and Brussels Airlines, hit headlines earlier this month after admitting that 18,000 flights would be flown empty this winter, including 3,000 Brussels Airlines services, due to the “use it or lose it” airport slot rules.

The Belgian federal government wrote to the European Commission in response, calling for a change to the strict rules on maintaining slots and citing the EU’s carbon reductions targets as a reason to reconsider.

In December 2021, the commission announced that the current 50 per cent minimum would in fact be raised to 64 per cent for flying schedules from April to November 2022.

Now, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is also calling for increased “flexibility…given the significant drop in passengers and impact of Omicron numbers on crewing planned schedules”.

A spokesperson told French news agency AFP: “Despite our urgings for more flexibility at the time, the EU approved a 50 per cent use rule for every flight schedule/frequency held for the winter.

“This has clearly been unrealistic in the EU this winter against the backdrop of the current crisis.”

A spokesperson from the EU Commission said that “the overall reduced consumer demand...is already reflected in a much-reduced rate of 50 per cent compared to the usual 80 per cent use rate rule”.