Crazy dispute between Lufthansa and the EU Commission: Hundreds of empty flights a day

Created: 01/13/2022, 3:47 PM

From: Erik Scharf

Lufthansa currently flies hundreds of unnecessary flights a day - including from Frankfurt Airport.

© Boris Roessler / dpa

The dispute over the thousands of empty flights by Lufthansa continues.

Hundreds of unnecessary flights take off every day.

The EU Commission does not want to counteract this.

Frankfurt - The crazy dispute between the airlines and the EU Commission about the important take-off and landing slots at airports in Europe continues.

Lufthansa is right in the middle with its home at Frankfurt Airport *.

It has long been known that Lufthansa has to carry out tens of thousands of flights empty or with very few passengers * during the corona pandemic - or that it risks losing take-off and landing rights.

The reason for this is a usage quota from the EU Commission.

According to the EU Commission, Lufthansa benefits from exceptional rules

On Thursday (January 13th, 2022), it again rejected allegations that it was forcing airlines to do environmentally harmful empty or ghost flights with bureaucratic regulations on these so-called slots.

Lufthansa also benefits from numerous exception rules that have been approved by the German slot coordinator, announced the EU Commission in Brussels.

In principle, this winter the airlines have to use at least half of their allotted time slots at certain airports that are heavily used at normal times in order not to have to give them up in the coming season.

During pandemic-free times, the required quota was 80 percent.

According to the commission, the quota, which has been reduced to 50 percent for the winter flight schedule, can be further undercut with exception rules that apply, for example, when new virus variants appear.

From March 28, the commission plans to increase the usage rate to 64 percent.

Frankfurt Airport: Lufthansa starts 100 “commercially unnecessary” flights every day

Lufthansa has now complained about the inconsistent application of the exception rules. They are not used in more than 20 member countries and very differently in the others, said a company spokesman in Frankfurt *. Currently, around 100 commercially unnecessary, barely occupied flights are being carried out in the group every day. This also applies to many other airlines that fly from Frankfurt Airport *.

Lufthansa is calling for flexible and unbureaucratic exceptions to the slot rules for the rest of the winter flight schedule. The Commission should advocate uniform rules to avoid unnecessary flights and give the airlines the ability to plan.

Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr said in an interview shortly before the end of the year that the group would have to fly 18,000 unnecessary flights by the end of March in order to keep its time window. Of these, around 40 percent have currently already been flown, it was now said. They hope for solutions for the remaining 11,000 or so unnecessary flights.

At the moment there are also discussions with low-cost airline Ryanair at Frankfurt Airport.

The airline initially announced that it would be leaving Frankfurt Airport - but that was apparently only part of a negotiating strategy.

(esa / dpa)