My dear readers, some links on this site pay us referral fees for sending business and sales. We value your time and money and will not waste it. For our complete advertising policy, click here . The content on this page is not provided by any companies mentioned, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone.
Airports run by cities and counties that espouse green policies limit that when it affects their pocketbooks and this is most evident with airport slots.
If you are considering booking travel or signing up for a new credit card please click here . Both support LiveAndLetsFly.com.
If you haven’t followed us on Facebook or Instagram , add us today. Cities and Counties Own Airport Authorities
Many cities and counties own the airport that serves the area or controls the “Airport Authority.” For example, the Allegheny Airport Authority controls Pittsburgh (and the former airport of the city, now an FBO). The cities of Elizabeth and Newark share Newark Liberty , while many European airports are privatized. Nevertheless, cities, counties, and federal authorities have some level of control over what an airport can or should require. Slot Restrictions Require Foolish and Wasteful Flights
In order to retain ownership of highly coveted and (in normal times) profitable airport landing slots, the carriers must fly them at a certain minimum frequency. Without maintaining this, they risk forfeiture of the landing slots which would be extremely costly for future flights, plus the investment that had already been made in securing the slots.
To punctuate this, Continental paid more than $52MM USD per slot pair (one landing, one take-off) in 1998, Oman Air paid Kenya Airways $75MM for a single slot pair, and just last year Air New Zealand sold a pair at Heathrow for $27MM.
As a result, Lufthansa has seen just 50% of pre-pandemic seats sold, operating 60% of its pre-pandemic schedule currently. This winter, however, they will fly as many as 18,000 empty flights simply to maintain these slots. The airline has already canceled some 33,000 flights due to omicron yet that won’t be enough to comply, leading to “ghost flights” flown solely for this purpose. “Because of the reduced demand in January, we even would have canceled considerably more flights,” Spohr said . “But in winter we will have to carry out 18,000 extra, unnecessary flights, […]
