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Why Heathrow Airport Had Empty Flights to Nowhere

Name: Why Heathrow Airport Had Empty Flights to Nowhere
Description: 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.

Half as Interesting

4 videos recommended on HN

YouTube

Cited on HN 3 times, 2020–2022, never outright recommended score 0

Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

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

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.

3 citations · Explainers

Aviation & aerospace engineering Business & economics (other) Explainers Engineering, Transport & Making

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@gh02t Jan 2020 Cites it

on HN thread 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 [this video] , where an airline was flying empty planes to hold their slot at Heathrow.

Airline flew empty planes to hold Heathrow slots.

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@scrollaway Mar 2020 Cites it

on HN thread 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. [this video]

Empty flights to keep slots predate COVID.

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@lathiat Jan 2022 Cites it

on HN thread 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) [this video] RealLifeLore2 also covered the same topic as the original submission: [link]

Pre-COVID explanation of empty flights to Heathrow to keep slots.

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