If planes fly empty to maintain their airport slots, does it mean that people massively deciding to fly less wouldn’t change a thing?

Question

Everything is in the question: we’ve all heard, during the pandemic, or at other times, of planes flying without any passenger to keep their slots and bet on future purchases of plane tickets to remain competitive. If many people decided to all of a sudden stop flying, what would it change in terms of the number of planes taking off? Would it be an effective solution to reduce the impact of the travel/flying industry? Thanks in advance!

EDIT: thanks a lot for all your answers and examples, this is very interesting, you’re the best! <3

In: 791

Answer 1

Passenger planes move cargo. Always have.

I used to work for a business that would occasionally use a service from Delta that would do same-day delivery of small packages via passenger aircraft.

I have heard (but cannot verify or source) that for some airlines, the passenger business is break-even and the profit is on the cargo.