Thread by @Sustainable2050

The source for that story on German Lufthansa carrying out 18,000 unnecessary flights to protect its landing rights: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 23 December. Thread.
faz.net/aktuell/wirtsc…

Lufthansa CEO Spohr: in our winter timetable, we had to cancel 33,000 flights due to lack of demand. "But we have to carry out another 18,000 unnecessary flights this winter, just to keep our start and landing rights. ..

While climate-friendly exception regulations have been found in almost all other parts of the world, the EU does not allow this in the same way. That's bad for climate and the opposite of the aims of the EC's #Fitfor55 program."

Apparently, the EU's exception for this winter was that airlines must operate flights in at least 50% of their scheduled take-off and landing slots, or risk losing them. This threshold was revised down from the usual 80% when the pandemic hit in 2020. euronews.com/green/2022/01/…

On 15 December (before Spohr's interview), the EC announced that this minimum would be raised to 64% for the summer timetable, instead of going back to the original 80%. Aim: to "ensure the efficient use of airport capacity while benefiting consumers."
transport.ec.europa.eu/news/aviation-…