Flights without passengers causing unnecessary pollution in the UK

From 2019 to today in England would have been made 5000 flights with few passengers. The phenomenon is defined”ghost flightAnd are flights that are operated daily with very few people on board. This includes a unnecessary pollution of the atmosphere. to raise awareness among passengers to give preference to travel solutions that involve more people, some airlines have reduced the percentage of emitted carbon dioxide.

The investigation of the Guardian speaks of another 35,000 commercial flights that have operated their route since 2019 with less than 10% of the seats occupied. In total there are 40,000 commercial and non-commercial flights. A very heated controversy has also recently erupted over the private jets. Happy the British government agrees to intervene to stop the ghost flight phenomenon.

Publishing this data is a step in the right direction, but we need more transparency to understand why these inefficient and polluting practices continue and to hold major airlines accountable.

Given the climate emergency, the revelation that so many near-empty planes have burned fossil fuels and contributed to the build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere is quite shocking.

Tim Johnson, Aviation Environment Federation