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
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along with the other comments that outline the fact that the pandemic was a novel set of circumstances for the Airline industry it’s also important to note that flying empty flights to maintain slots is worth it at some airports but not at others
large international hubs like Heathrow, Paris CDG, Amsterdam Schipol and Berlin command incredibly high fees for slots so losing them would be massive, but a less important regional or more seasonal airports where slots are cheaper don’t require this
usually airlines also won’t fly a full route, to maintain a slot at heathrow you could just fly to a local regional airport and back in somewhere like Wales to keep hold of a slot that you used to fly to New York
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