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Why Heathrow Airport Had Empty Flights to Nowhere

Half as Interesting0 HN recommenders · 2020–2022
3.1M views · explainer · evergreen · Uploaded 2018-07-19

Half as Interesting explains why airlines flew empty 'ghost flights' out of Heathrow to keep their landing slots under use-it-or-lose-it rules.

Cited to show that empty slot-keeping flights predate COVID and Lufthansa's recent practice.

Aviation & aerospace engineeringBusiness & economics (other)

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3 comments from Hacker News

@gh02t2020 · in “If Everyone Hates Spirit Airlines, How Is It Making So Much Money?”

Probably filling seats on unpopular routes that they would have to fly anyway. Perhaps in a similar situation to what's described in [VIDEO] , where an airline was flying empty planes to hold their slot at Heathrow.

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@scrollaway2020 · in “Airlines flying empty planes to keep flight slots during coronavirus outbreak”

Yep. Featured on HAI a year ago, it's not a new practice it's just been exacerbated due to COVID-19. [VIDEO]

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@lathiat2022 · in “Lufthansa confirmed that 18k flights had been flown empty to keep slots”

This existed pre-COVID but is more of a thing now. See Half as Interesting - Why Heathrow Airport Had Empty Flights to Nowhere (3 years ago, pre-covid) [VIDEO] RealLifeLore2 also covered the same topic as the original submission: [LINK]

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