Why do carriers still need to maintain empty flights?

The outbreak due to Covid-19 caused a sharp decline in the number of passengers, however, the flight without a passenger still had to return regularly.

According to Business Insider , the situation shows that airlines are wasting tons of fuel to make empty "ghost" flights due to the "reservation" rule at European airports.

Under this rule, flight operators are required to maintain active flight or lose their slot due to a long break.

Picture 1 of Why do carriers still need to maintain empty flights?
British Airways had to cancel hundreds of flights because of the outbreak of Covid-19, the aircraft parked in the yard causing great damage to the airline.(Photo: Shutterstock).

Diseases caused by corona virus are spreading worldwide causing the travel needs of passengers plummeting. Airlines are miserable and have to reduce fares. According to EU aviation regulations, if the airline provides transcontinental service, it needs to maintain 80% of the registered seats, otherwise it will be lost to other rival airlines.

This condition makes the airline service operators have to make single-person flights in and out of European countries at a huge cost, according to The Times of London.

On March 5, Transport Minister Grant Shapps had to send a letter to the flight coordination agency - Airport Coordinator Limited, which asked to stop applying the regulation in the situation of an outbreak to prevent an outbreak. Unnecessary economic damage and environmental impact.

Shapps is concerned that in order to meet the "80/20" rule (the rule of maintaining 80% of registered flights), carriers will be forced to maintain back and forth flights with low load rates, or even abandon empty to reserve seats.

" This is unacceptable. It does not benefit customers, passengers who have real needs, while causing unnecessary environmental consequences ," he said.

The aviation coordinating agency - ACL has postponed the application of the 80/20 rule to the airline operating service to and from mainland China, including Hong Kong.

On March 5, the airline Flybe, England was forced to apply for bankruptcy protection due to severe financial difficulties resonating with the outbreak. The International Air Transport Association estimates that the outbreak will cause airline sales to evaporate to $ 113 billion globally.