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

You said it yourself, planes during the lockdown where operating at loss, betting that once the pandemic was over people would fly again and they’d need the airport slots.

If many people stopped flying completely, planes would initially travel empty to keep the slots, but over time the companies would realise the passengers won’t come back to fly again and renounce those slots and reduce the number of planes.