Why would an airline pay the pilot and crew, fill the huge tank of a commercial aircraft, and take off without carrying enough cargo or passengers to justify the expense? Yes, every month in Europe dozens of planes take off that are essentially empty or with less than 10% of their capacity and that are known as “ghost flights”. For years the phenomenon, which does not occur in Latin America or the Caribbean, has been a reality, but with the arrival of the pandemic and travel restrictions the problem became more pressing.
Many airports require airlines to perform at least 80% of scheduled flights to maintain their take-off and landing rights at certain times (slots).
That leaves them a 20% margin of cancellation.
If their operations do not meet those percentages they are forced to activate empty planes to maintain the slots or the following year they risk losing the best trading hours.
It is not the same to take off from London at 6 in the morning than to do it at 8 or 9.
Nor is it the same to land in Madrid at 5 pm than at 1 am, when the metro has already closed and connections to the city center are more complicated.
The price is not the same either.
So in the most congested airports, and in order to be able to organize all air traffic, the European Commission and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States apply the rule “use it”. [el slot] or lose it.”
“Ghost flights are defined as those operated voluntarily by airlines exclusively for the purpose of preserving historical rights over their slots,” explain the Airports Council International (ACI).
The body, which represents the interests of airports before governments, adds that “ghost flights are not offered for sale, do not carry passengers and do not generate revenue for airlines.”
Many believe that ghost flights benefit no one and that it is an unnecessary and wasteful practice.
Others than the coordinated distribution of slots at airports that are at the maximum possible capacity ensures competition between airlines and benefits consumers.
“These are flights that, a priori, do not make economic sense, much less environmental. It burns a lot of kerosene that has a clear impact on climate change,” says Diego R. González, president of the World Association of Airport Lawyers.
Traditional and low cost airlines
The key is precisely in the commercial aspect.
“Slots are those assigned schedules or shifts. If they do not use them, they are penalized. The following year the airport authority assigns it to another company and for airlines it is a way to lose market share, “says González.
For the lawyer there is a bid between traditional airlines and those that have recently reached the market, which encourages carriers to make every effort to comply with the regulation even if it is flying empty.
“The airlines that dominate the market do so because they have the best schedules, which are the most expensive. It’s the routes that arrive at airports at central times in terms of convenience,” he says.
“As there is a dominant carrier that has no competition on a route on a schedule, what happens is that it does not lower prices. There is a problem of competition between airlines that bid for a scarce resource, such as airport infrastructure,” he adds.
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Willie Walsh, director of the International Air Transport Association, argues that this business model encourages airlines to fly at low capacity or empty to maintain slots.
“If you’re flying between two airports with regulated capacity, you need to have permission from both of them not to fly. Otherwise you have to operate,” the executive explained in a video while saying that he does not believe that there are airlines doing this practice deliberately.
Airlines are calling for greater flexibility in the rule.
But from the industry they also point out that before flying an empty plane, the affected airline could lower prices trying to attract travelers to the flight in trouble.
A rare policy to see.
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Environmental damage
To all this fragile balance of the aeronautical industry is added the environmental damage.
Aviation is responsible for around 2% of global CO2 emissions but the sector as a whole accounts for around 3.5% of global warming due to human activity.
And it is a sector that will continue to grow.
Since 2000, emissions have increased by 50% and the industry is expected to grow by more than 4% each year.the next two decades, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The environmental damage from “ghost flights in Europe,” according to Greenpeace, is “equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 1.4 million cars.”
And all at a time when the aviation industry committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
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Not happening in Latin America
The situation in Latin America and the Caribbean is different.
It should be borne in mind that the slot system is in force at airports with a capacity to the limit.
“Obviously there are congested airports in some countries such as Brazil or Mexico and at certain times in Peru and Colombia, but in the region it is not happening because the capacity of the airports has not reached a point where they need restrictions,” says González.
Although after the pandemic the volume of passengers is recovering, the number of aircraft movement is not so representative as to force airports to take measures.
“Europe is suffering, among other things, from latent demand. That is, people who were waiting for everything to open up to travel. Also of the recovered flights that were not made during the pandemic. That ticket you bought and stayed there until everything reopened,” says Rafael Echevarne, ACI’s general director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
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