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Home » London Heathrow LHR » Ghost Flights From London Heathrow
London Heathrow LHR

Ghost Flights From London Heathrow

Matthew Klint Posted onJuly 27, 2018November 14, 2023 6 Comments

airplanes at an airport

Three of the most valuable commodities in the world: gold, silver…and LHR slots?

Take a worldwide financial hub and throw in an airport bursting at the seams and you have a classic supply and demand dilemma. But the ironic result is empty flights to nowhere.

Perhaps it’s not so ironic when you consider an airline profits not only from its own flights, but by keeping its competition at bay. Heathrow slots are strictly controlled and highly coveted. If an airline fails to utilizes its slots, it loses them. That leads to some creative solutions during slower travel months.

The subject of the video below is a flight between Heathrow and Cardiff, Wales that British Mediterranean Airways ran without passengers…just to keep its Heathrow slot alive during a transition period.

(In case you wondered, British Mediterranean was bought by bmi, which was bought by British Airways.)

Back in the day, United Airlines used to run a service from London to Brussels during the winter when it cut its Dulles schedule from three flights daily to two. Unlike the British Mediterranean flights to Cardiff, these Fifth Freedom flights were offered for sale..and for cheap. Even so, they routinely went out mostly empty and there is no question this route lost money. But it didn’t matter: with a use-it-or-lose-it policy at LHR, United had to do something and lost less money flying to Brussels than an unnecessary extra segment to the USA or losing the slot.

CONCLUSION

Slot controls lead to interesting behaviors. As Heathrow demonstrates, flights to nowhere can make sense. Take time to watch the video above. It’s worth the five minute investment.

H/T: View from the Wing / image: Warren Rohner / Wikimedia Commons

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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6 Comments

  1. Scott Reply
    July 27, 2018 at 10:34 am

    Ok seriously did you totally copy someone else’s post????

    • Matthew Reply
      July 27, 2018 at 11:54 am

      Whoose post did I copy?

  2. Phil Duncan Reply
    July 27, 2018 at 12:20 pm

    KLM are also one of the worst daily offenders on this score operating three flights in a ninety minute slot AMS-LHR-AMS using an E190 when it could probably all be covered with a 738 of which they have a large number.

    • Max S. Reply
      July 27, 2018 at 1:49 pm

      There’s a reason for that: diversity. They can still consolidate if loads are not good, but they can still offer scattered departures during the day. I find it very handy.

      Also, keep in mind KLM flies to way many airports in the UK than BA does…

  3. Brad B Reply
    July 27, 2018 at 12:45 pm

    With the UA LHR-BRU flight, they also cut the nonstop from IAD-BRU during that time, so they at least marketed it as a through flight and were able to reallocate 2 airplanes while keeping LHR slots and BRU service.

    • Matthew Reply
      July 27, 2018 at 1:17 pm

      Good point.

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