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

Short term, no. It wouldn’t do anything.

However, airlines are going to quickly notice that they have a ton of planes taking up fuel and maintenance time and not producing any revenue in return.

Like you said, airlines are making a bet on future purchases. But if those future purchases don’t happen, airlines are going to stop making that bet.