3000 fees in Belgium up in the air to keep landing rights
Belgian investigative media report the news of the empty planes. The Lufthansa Group, which includes Brussels Airlines as part of the agreement, had to cancel many flights due to the omikron wave: 33,000 scheduled flights until the end of March.
In order to secure take-off and landing rights, 18,000 flights will be performed ‘unnecessarily’ this winter. Brussels Airlines wants to send in 3000 empty planes, according to the investigative media.
To secure flight rights
The airlines do this so as not to lose their take-off and landing rights. Those rights are important, explains aviation expert Joris Melkert. “There is a lot of competition for this at prominent airports such as Schiphol or Brussels Airport. Without these rights you are not welcome at an airport,” says Melkert. “If an airline once has such a lock, the airline will lose it forever.”
Requirements
The landing rights are subject to conditions, says the aviation expert. “The rule was that airlines must keep at least 80 percent of their slots on their right. If they didn’t, they would have lost their slot.”
Due to corona, the proportion that must be used has been reduced to 50 percent. “But seen that is still too high for some airlines and they have to achieve this goal with empty planes.
incomprehensible
The Belgian federal government has already sent a letter to the European Commission to draw attention to this problem. The responsible Belgian minister receiving percent ‘incomprehensible’ and asks the European Commission to further lower the standard of 50.
Twitter users don’t have a good word for it either. “There you are with the meat substitutes”, Jan tweeted. Vincent tweeted: “This is mopping with the tap open.”
That’s how bad flying is for the environment
Aircraft cost kerosene and emit CO2, thereby contributing to the greenhouse effect. Air traffic emitted a lot of CO2 and is one of the major causes of climate change. Flying also causes the formation of clouds: that also enhances the greenhouse effect. An air trip burdens the environment 7 to 11 times as much as the same trip by train.