Ryanair makes fun of Lufthansa

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Ryanair and Lufthansa machines at Frankfurt Airport

Photo: Andreas Arnold / dpa

Shortly before the turn of the year, Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr had caused excitement and anger with an announcement: The airline would have to "carry out 18,000 additional, useless flights in winter just to secure our take-off and landing rights," said Spohr.

That harms the climate and contradicts the climate protection goals of the EU.

Because actually Lufthansa would like to cancel these flights because of the slump in bookings.

In fact, the EU Commission demands that an airline must use a time window for a take-off or landing - a so-called slot - to a certain extent so that it can keep it permanently.

In normal times, this minimum rate is 80 percent, since March 2021 because of the corona crisis it has been 50 percent, from April it is expected to increase to 64 percent.

Now the Irish low-cost competitor Ryanair makes fun of the allegedly planned "ghost flights" of Lufthansa - and attacks the German airline at the same time.

"We have the solution: Sell cheap tickets," wrote Ryanair on Twitter.

However, the EU Commission should ignore “false claims” by Lufthansa about the need for empty ghost flights, according to the message linked on Twitter.

Instead, the EU should force Lufthansa and other state-subsidized airlines to release slots that they did not want to use.

"Ghostbusters" like Ryanair and other airlines could then offer these flights at lower ticket prices.

"Lufthansa weeps crocodile tears with a view to the environment, but is ready to do anything to keep its time window," said Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary.

But France's Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari also interpreted the statements made by Lufthansa as a pure negotiation strategy.

"We will make sure that no European airline is forced to empty flights," said Djebbari.

A Lufthansa spokesman replied to the Ryanair attack that Lufthansa had never spoken of ghost wings.

»We are concerned with a European harmonization of the exemptions for the use of take-off and landing rights in the current winter flight schedule.

This could avoid many thousands of unnecessary flights in Europe. "

Not only Lufthansa, but also other airlines consider the target quotas of 50 and soon 64 percent to be unrealistic, as air traffic is still severely restricted by the pandemic.

The EU Commission justified the again stricter rules, according to the prognosis of the EU authority Eurocontrol, air traffic will reach 89 percent of the pre-crisis level again this year.

How seriously Ryanair means the demand to take over slots from Lufthansa is also questionable because the airline only announced last week that it would be withdrawing from Frankfurt, Germany's most important airport, in the spring due to the fee increase.

fdi / Reuters / AFP