The flight now leaving Heathrow is...empty

pollution?

AN airline is flying an empty passenger jet between Heathrow and Cardiff on a daily basis — just so that it can hold on to its lucrative slots at the London airport.

The flights, which have pumped hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the past five months, threaten to undermine the aviation industry’s public stance of trying to reduce emissions.

The flights are being run by British Mediterranean Airways (BMed) — until recently part-owned by the family of Wafic Said, the Syrian-born financier — which flies the Airbus passenger plane from Heathrow to Cardiff and back six times a week. As a British Airways franchise, it pays a percentage of its revenue to BA in return for operating in its livery.

No tickets are sold and all 124 passenger seats are empty. Because there are no passengers, the “ghost†flights, which have run since October, do not appear on departure or arrival boards.

The sole purpose is to keep hold of landing slots on runways at Heathrow, the world’s busiest airport for international flights. The slots can be reallocated if an airline does not use them regularly. They are so valuable that they can change hands among airlines for up to £10m each.

Each 140-mile flight produces 5.21 tons of carbon dioxide.

Over the five months, the 12 flights a week will have sent as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 36,000 cars streaming along the M4 motorway. It is equivalent to the annual CO2 output of a town of 2,000 people.

By the end of this month the flights will also have cost BMed at least £2m. There is a £2,500 fuel bill for each flight, plus £300,000 a month for the lease, insurance, crew and maintenance charges.

Graham Thompson of Plane Stupid, a campaign group, said: “It’s quite shocking. These ghost flights very much undermine the greenwash we get from the airlines on how they are going to protect the environment. This shows that they are willing to sacrifice the climate for a profit.â€

The flights reveal the lengths to which airlines will go to hang on to runway slots. All of Heathrow’s daily 1,250 time slots — except for a few late at night — are allocated to particular airlines and are jealously guarded. BA has 40% of the slots at Heathrow. There is also an active trade in the runway positions, with some carriers prepared to buy their way in.

While the trades are rarely made public, three years ago Qantas, the Australian airline, paid £20m for just two return flights a day.

Airlines must use their allocation or have the slot withdrawn. If a slot is not used 80% of the time over a six-month season, it is handed back to an independent coordinating body that allocates runway times.

BMed has just eight aircraft and flies as a BA franchise to destinations such as Tehran, Beirut, Yerevan in Armenia, Baku in Azerbaijan and Tbilisi in Georgia — a list that has led some to describe it as “BA with ballsâ€.

It came up with the Cardiff plan after it was forced to scrap flights to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, at the end of October after civil unrest there.