Aurélien Fleurot, edited by Gauthier Delomez 09h00, January 07, 2022

Several European airlines find themselves having to fly their planes, even empty ones, so as not to lose their dearly obtained slots at airports.

A total of 18,000 "unnecessary" flights will have to be carried out this year.

An ubiquitous situation that the European Commission must resolve.

Put in place an ambitious climate plan that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, and at the same time, fly empty planes because of its regulations.

A headache for the European Commission, whose rules provide that an airline must ensure 80% of its landing and take-off slots, failing to lose them the following season.

If the regulations were reduced by 50% a few months ago, nearly 18,000 "unnecessary" flights will be carried out, regrets the CEO of the German company Lufthansa.

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Low-cost airlines looking for new niches

There was consensus on regulatory relief, but the wave of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has dampened hopes of a resumption of air traffic. The historic companies, very present on long-haul, must face competition from low-cost companies, ready to jump on these niches to appropriate them. Companies like Wizzair or Ryanair, whose finances are not drained, are on the lookout to place their short and medium-haul planes there, while a company like Lufthansa is struggling to fill all its flights between Frankfurt and New York. .

"Once the crisis has passed and the increase in air traffic, we would have a discrepancy between these two types of companies. It is therefore a very difficult equation to resolve for the airports and for the European Commission", specifies Didier Bréchemier, partner at the Roland Berger firm and specialist in the aviation sector.

The request to further lower the threshold for use

Among the companies concerned within the Lufthansa group, Brussels Airlines has announced that it will have to make 3,000 empty flights, or almost. An incomprehensible situation for the Belgian Federal Minister for Mobility, Georges Gilkinet, who sent a letter to the European Commissioner for Transport, Adina Valean. It calls for further lowering the threshold for the use of slots and offering more flexibility to airlines to organize their flights.

A request also pushed by Air France, even if the French company is not currently concerned and has "not planned" to fly empty planes.