The Strategist

Guardian: Number of "ghost flights" from UK reaches 500 a month



04/01/2022 - 10:25



Airlines operated roughly 500 foreign "ghost flights" from UK airports between October and December 2021.



Stanislav Doronenko
Stanislav Doronenko
The Guardian newspaper received this information after submitting a Freedom of Information Act request to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Heathrow, Manchester, Aberdeen, Stansted, and Norwich airports all had the most of these flights. The data only includes outbound international flights and excludes any domestic flights, according to the publication.

During the epidemic, "ghost flights," or flights that are totally or nearly entirely unloaded by planes, became a topic of discussion. Airlines resorted to operating such flights back then in order to keep slots at the world's airports - the time granted at the airport for arrival or departure on a specific day and hour.

According to The Guardian, there were approximately 15,000 "ghost flights" departing the UK between March 2020 and September 2021. Greenpeace estimates that at least 100,000 such flights took place across Europe last winter. The German airline Lufthansa announced in January that by March, its planes would have completed 18 thousand "unnecessary" flights. Airlines resorted to operating such flights back then in order to keep slots at the world's airports - the time granted at the airport for arrival or departure on a specific day and hour.

According to The Guardian, there were approximately 15,000 "ghost flights" departing the UK between March 2020 and September 2021. Greenpeace estimates that at least 100,000 such flights took place across Europe last winter. The German airline Lufthansa announced in January that by March, its planes would have completed 18 thousand "unnecessary" flights.

source: theguardian.com