Since the start of the pandemic, the broader public has become accustomed to seeing the term "ghost flight" pop up every now and then in news reports, often accompanied by general outrage at their existence. But what exactly are they, why do they happen, are they necessary, and why do they make people upset?

Use it or lose it

A ghost flight is when an airline operates a plane on a regularly scheduled route with little to no passengers - under 10% of capacity - onboard. This is most often done to make certain airlines can fulfill their contractual obligations so as not to lose one of their most precious assets - airport slots.

A slot is the permission granted by an airport to an airline for the latter's flight to take off or land at a specific time. They are necessary to control traffic and capacity at congested and regulated airports and can be very hard to come by and also very expensive.

Slots are allocated, or rather, held on to, based on a "use it or lose it" rule. This means, under ordinary circumstances, that if an airline does not use at least 80% of its slot, the airport may offer it to another carrier next season. During the pandemic, this was reduced to 50% not to place too much pressure on airlines to operate flights in an impossible market.

However, as restrictions have been lifted, it was brought back up to 70% of slot use from March this year. For winter 2022, the European Union has agreed on a 75/25 rule.

Lufthansa A320 aircraft taking off from runway
Photo: Getty Images

Climate concerns

Chief executive Carsten Spohr of the Lufthansa Group stated early this year while the Omicron subvariant was still very much a concern for travelers that, due to this “use it or lose it” rule…

“…we will have to carry out 18,000 extra unnecessary flights just to secure our take-off and landings right.”

And the data speaks for itself. According to research published in September, the UK alone, home to eight Level 3 "coordinated" airports, there have been over 5,000 ghost flights arriving or departing since 2019.

Meanwhile, across Europe, Greenpeace estimated that around 100,000 ghost flights would fly over the continent in the past winter alone. These ghost flights will have caused roughly 2.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, which is equivalent to the emissions of more than 1.4 million cars per year. However, there are yet to be any exact statistics to ascertain the impact.

Ryanair Boeing 737-8 MAX 9H-VUN
Photo: Vincenzo Pace I Simple Flying.

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Sell cheaper seats, Ryanair boss says

Last winter's ghost flight problem was also cause for some back-and-forth between two major European airline bosses. While Spohr seemed to think this was a real issue, the Group CEO of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, seems to think he has the solution for all of Lufthansa's problems. He believed eliminating the need to fly 18,000 unnecessary flights would have been simple if Lufthansa had “just sold these seats to consumers.” According to Bloomberg, he said that,

“Lufthansa loves crying crocodile tears about the environment when doing everything possible to protect its slots.”

While selling cheaper tickets might end up filling planes, the idea was shut down by Lufthansa's CEO, who instead feels that Ryanair’s €5 fares are “irresponsible”.

Feuds aside, the real impact on the environment due to ghost flights is unknown. While the market has picked up significantly, and airlines have much less need to operate empty planes, two years on, they still occur frequently. This suggests that they may have become a long-term issue that aviation as a whole needs to handle - airlines and airports working together for the common good rather than on a mere transactional basis.

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Sources: Greenpeace; Bloomberg