Major airline faces backlash after using ‘ghost flights’ to exploit a legal loophole: ‘They weren’t even selling tickets’::Ultimately, it’s incumbent on lawmakers to take steps to ensure this practice is discouraged.
Hahaha, but skiplagging is bad!!! Fucking hypocrisy of an industry.
Don’t you worry, I’m sure the free market competition will sort it out any minute now…
/s
But wouldn’t a more free market in this case let them do more direct flights to Melbourne without requiring the extra leg?
The extra leg is only added to get around a specific kind of regulation of the market (limiting how many flights they can do with Melbourne as a destination), it wouldn’t exist otherwise.
If Melbourne had unlimited capacity for flights, yes. But that’s where the free market stuff tends to fail in reality, it works if you assume a market without natural limits, but not otherwise.
But a free market solution would be the airport increasing its prices until the demand at those prices matches how much capacity they have (and probably a push to add more capacity, or a build a new airport nearby, etc.)
The problem from Australia’s point of view is probably that this could cause their own airlines to be out-competed by foreign ones, or it could reduce the number of destinations where flights are viable, etc.
There are slot limits that regulate that. This is just a policy to benefit domestic airlines while encouraging flights to airports other than Sydney and Melbourne.
In this case, Qatar Airways was making these extra journeys to avoid caps that allow it to make only 28 weekly trips to Australia’s major airports, which includes Melbourne. Landing at Adelaide Airport, which is not among that list, as the final destination enabled the airline to make additional journeys to Melbourne, as there were no limits on flights to non-major airports.
Cute.
Love the double standard. When you do this as a passenger to get a cheaper fare the airliner will ban you for life.
So I get how that’s bad for the environment and all
But why are their flights limited to 28 in the first place?
The Mighty Black Stump
Well yeah, if the law allows it, don’t be surprised people make use of it.
The airlines always complain about the cost of fuel, I’m surprised they can tolerate this. 18,000 ghost flights for Lufthansa? Just last month I sat in a 100 degree cabin for about 45 minutes before take- off because the APU needed to be turned on by a ground unit. The pilot said he called for the truck. It never came. Later I asked a pilot friend of mine and he said they can power that unit themselves but it uses fuel and the airline probably has a policy against it. Screw you Virgin Atlantic!
The apu itself is located in the tail and cannot be air started. If the apu is bad and engine can be started with an air truck.
On all planes?
I’d think so. They may have been talking about a ground air conditioning cart.
Edit to add: APUs burn fuel, are noisy, and some airports are very picky about their use, rightly so. But typically these airports offer ground air conditioning. If not, you ask them to start the APU when it gets too hot in the plane.
I worked for an airline that was picky about it, but the bottom line was a riot on board was worse than burning fuel. Never been told no by the airport in reasonable conditions.
