Ghost flights from UK running at 500 a month, data reveals

theguardian.com:

Almost 500 “ghost flights” a month departed from the UK between October and December 2021, data has revealed.

The information, obtained through a freedom of information request by the Guardian, shows Heathrow, Aberdeen, Manchester, Stansted and Norwich were the top five airports for such flights during the period.

Ghost flights are defined as those with no passengers, or less than 10% of passenger capacity. The data from the Civil Aviation Authority includes only international flights leaving the UK and not arrivals, or any domestic flights.

Flying is one of the most carbon-polluting activities people can undertake, and ghost flights have angered those campaigning for action on the climate crisis. Almost 15,000 ghost flights left the UK between the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 and September 2021, the Guardian revealed in February. The German airline Lufthansa said in January it would have to fly 18,000 “unnecessary” flights by March.

Such flights have been blamed on the system at busy airports whereby airlines must normally run 80% of their flights, empty or not, to retain their landing slots. The rule was suspended during the pandemic and reintroduced at 50% in October 2021, but that did not appear to have significantly changed the number of monthly ghost flights.

Tim Johnson, of the Aviation Environment Federation, said: “UK airline average occupancy grew significantly in the last six months of 2021, although November’s peak at around 70% is still significantly below the 86% achieved before the pandemic. But this hasn’t altered the number of ultra-low occupancy flights in our skies each month.

“If changing market fortunes can’t solve this problem then the government must act to do so,” he said. “Its recent