Brussels Airlines has operated 3,000 empty or near-empty flights this winter to avoid losing take-off and landing rights at major airports, it has been revealed.
Summary
- Brussels Airlines has operated 3,000 empty or near-empty flights this winter to avoid losing take-off and landing rights at major airports, it has been revealed.
- The airline’s parent company, Lufthansa, operated 18,000 flights this winter that would otherwise have been cancelled due to lack of passengers, including 3,000 flights under the Brussels Airlines banner, reports Le Soir and RTBF.
- The news has prompted the Belgian federal government to write to the European Commission, urging it to rethink the rules on securing slots.
- Before the pandemic hit, the rule was that airlines must operate flights in at least 80% of their scheduled take-off and landing slots, or they risked losing them.
- Lufthansa plans to cancel 33,000 scheduled flights by the end of March due to a drop in bookings caused by the omicron variant of coronavirus.