Afternoon all,
BBC NEWS | UK | Airline denies 'ghost' plane plan
I read this story and it interested me, so I thought I'd put the question out there and see what answers I got.
The idea of "ghost flights" i.e. flying empty or at a loss has been denied as a tactic used to keep routes open. Fair enough, I don't expect anyone to say anything different here.
The spokesman in the article did however allude to "marginal" services, and the need to keep routes open to maintain take-off and landing privileges worth an estimated £770,000,000 for BMI at Heathrow (according to the times of course), so my questions are:
1) Will all the major carriers consider the above to keep their slots?
2) How long does anyone think they'd keep it up before throwing in the towel, admitting defeat and losing the slot?
3) What fraction of work carried out during financial "good times" would this equate to?
I ask only out of interest as I'm nowhere near being concerned about jobs etc. I'm just interested in whether or not the above mentioned practice would provide enough work to bolster the employment market for pilots in these trying times...
Cheers all
