At least 100,000 “ghost flights” could be flown across Europe this winter because of EU airport slot usage rules, according to analysis by Greenpeace.
The deserted, unnecessary or unprofitable flights are intended to allow airlines to keep their takeoff and landing runway rights in major airports, but they could also generate up to 2.1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions – or as much as 1.4 million average petrol or diesel cars emit in a year – Greenpeace says.
“The EU Commission requiring airlines to fly empty planes to meet an arbitrary quota is not only polluting, but extremely hypocritical given their climate rhetoric,” said Herwig Schuster, a spokesperson for Greenpeace’s European Mobility for All campaign.
Not that we normally side with Greenpeace around here but this is indeed just stupid.
Even if the practice is good in normal times – no one can buy up slots, then not use them, creating a cartel or monopoly, in exceptional times the rules do need to be changed.
And that’s the thing that the EU – hell, the entire idea of Roman Law – is terrible at, changing in the face of changed circumstances. Because everything is determined by law then some variation in reality requires a change in the law. Rather than folks just reacting to reality and getting on with it.
And reality is always changing, which is why the detailed regulatory state gets worse and worse over time.
Back when we were at the beginning of the greatest plague of all time, it was fascinating (well, OK, only fascinating because of the fact that many fascinating things have been taken away from us) to watch, on saddo planespotter websites, the reaction of Ruinair (an organization I don’t usually defend either). To meet the slot requirements, their plane(s) based at airport X would simply fly as many circuits as necessary.
It is not just the fact that the EU does not like to change the rules, it is also how long they take on agreeing what the new rule will be. If the EU had to define what a chocolate fudge brownie is they would spend fie years arguing if the the brownie should actually contain chocolate.
“would simply fly as many circuits as necessary”
Meh, they would probably find the smallest plane they could and have an absolutely minimal fuel load, but take-off and landing are both very fuel intensive. There will be some savings, but over a short haul flight, probably not as much as you might hope.
It’s still a staggering waste.
I agree, Roman Law is terrible, that’s why the majority of modern commercial law and a good chunk of the law of people in the West is based on it.
It’s always a cheering sight when a pundit celebrated for castigating those who don’t know what they’re talking about, doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
Yeah, that’s why the two prime commercial law jurisdictions are England and Wales and New York. Common law jurisdictions.
TPG,
Takes about 10 minutes to fly a circuit in a 737. Yeah, you have to take off but don’t climb to cruising altitude. It is still a colossal waste but legacy airlines with small numbers of bases will have had a much bigger problem.
The only reaso that there is still so much Roman Law in Europe is because we didn’t do a good enough job of bombing it out of them.
I wonder if this gives BA’s exTornado pilots a chance to buzz the tower.
Law is primarily to keep the powerful in power. Any good that may come out of it is purely coincidental.
said Herwig Schuster, a spokesperson for Greenpeace’s European Mobility for All campaign.
Mobility for all, but only by donkey or dinghy I presume.
“Takes about 10 minutes to fly a circuit in a 737”
Many years ago I would see Air Europa B737’s doing the sort of circuits normally carried out by light aircraft at my local airport. Since they would have spent much of their life landing at tricky places on island destinations, they clearly had far superior “Hand Flying” skills than the majority of larger carriers. I’ll bet one of them could do a tight circuit in less than 10 minutes…
How many hours and landings do pilots have to fly a month to keep their commercial licence? How much of that can be done on simulators? Given the numbers of pilots not getting air time are their enough simulators for them all to maintain their commercial licences?
And don’t airframes and engines need to have a certain number of hours flight time in a given period?
In the unlikely event that I go flying anytime soon I’d prefer the pilot to have done some recent flying, even if it is through wasting energy, rather than have been sat around with thumb in bum and mind in neutral for the past 2 years.
“thumb in bum and mind in neutral for the past 2 years”: and if he’s young, his heart might be toiling from his treble vaxx.
Back when we were at the beginning of the greatest plague of all time, it was fascinating (well, OK, only fascinating because of the fact that many fascinating things have been taken away from us) to watch, on saddo planespotter websites, the reaction of Ruinair (an organization I don’t usually defend either). To meet the slot requirements, their plane(s) based at airport X would simply fly as many circuits as necessary.
Dunno. I have a good view of EMA’s flight zone, and Ryanair planes doing touch-and-go circuits during quiet times has been a regular feature for years. I assumed it was training and familiarisation. Still happens from time to time now, though it seems less frequent.
In the early days of the darktime, perhaps before awareness of how long the madness would last, there were lots of aircraft doing strange patterns, including RAF C-17s and C-1s (A400s). Tracking them on Flight Radar showed them visiting multiple commercial airports per flight and doing circuits. I still think it was just them taking what they thought would be a short term opportunity.
EMA’s cargo flights definitely picked up for a while, especially the early hours slot. When the wind was from the east, it was entertaining to lay in bed and watch them take off (no view of the runway but from about 200ft upwards). US bound flights went north and came overhead, European bound went south and then east – how soon dependent on destination. Southern Europe flights could be watched for ages as they climbed with distance. Maybe they’ve redistributed cargo now, ‘cos it definitely seems quieter. Or maybe less cargo . . .
I still have a screenshot of the Flight Radar page showing zero flights over the UK. (yes, sad bastard)
@BiND
When flights resumed after the Great Lurgy, there were a few ‘incidents’ which could have been nasty: the bleed valves on the 1st stage compressors would stick and the pilot would find out as they throttled back from takeoff while still in a very vulnerable speed/height position.
I forget whether they stuck open, and wouldn’t close, or they other way, but the effect was an engine stall and power loss at pucker moment.
Something to do with the seals going solid through disuse?
Fortunately, it was rare enough that no one had both engines go.
@bloke in spain – January 26, 2022 at 10:52 am
Law is primarily to keep the powerful in power…
During the course of my LLB I came to the conclusion that Law exists purely for the enrichment of lawyers.
“In the early days of the darktime, perhaps before awareness of how long the madness would last, there were lots of aircraft doing strange patterns”
Yeah, light aircraft doing touch and go at JFK was my highlight.