well played by bmi spin dept though...

Sallyann. Watch the programme if you haven't yet seen it - it's an eye opener!
Dan Air - Gordon Brown never did have any intention of investing the additional air taxes in any kind of environmental program whatsoever. Politicians always give us loud rhetoric on this but they know that the UK is just a minnow in it's environmental efforts and that absolutely nothing we do will have an iota of effect. But it's a dead easy way of raising more taxes!
However, I do agree that the concept of these phantom flights is reprehensible waste, as fuel is a finite commodity which should not be wasted, and, though CO2 might not contribute to global warming, it still creates it's own kind of pollution which should be minimised.