Europe's sky is filling up with near-empty polluting planes that serve little other purpose than safeguarding airlines' valuable time slots at some of the world's most important airports.
The highly contagious omicron variant of COVID 19 has put a lot of off flying, and it has made getting people and goods from point A to point B an afterthought for thousands of flights.
It has created strange bedfellows, with environmentalists and major airlines agreeing to cut down on empty or near-empty flights by urging the European Union - a pledged global leader in combating climate change - to change the rules on airport slots.
Greta Thunberg, activist and activist, said the EU is in a climate emergency mode and that it is linked to a story about Brussels Airlines making unnecessary flights.
The company said that if the EU doesn't take action, it would have to fly some 3,000 trips this winter to protect its network rights.
German giant Lufthansa said it would have to fly an additional 18,000 unnecessary flights through the winter to hold onto landing slots. Even if the holidays brought a big increase in passengers - marked by thousands of flight cancellations that left travelers stranded - the rest of the winter period could be slow as omicron surges worldwide.
Airlines have to guarantee a high percentage of flights because of the fact that most of the popular routes in the biggest airports are an extremely precious commodity in the industry. Loss-making flights have to be maintained to ensure companies keep their slots.
It was an accepted practice despite the pollution concerns, but the pandemic slump in flying put that in question. The EU has cut that by 50% to make sure as few empty or near-empty planes crisscross the sky as possible, so airlines had to use 80% of their slots to preserve their rights.
The federal Aviation Administration waived similar minimum slot-use rules through March 26, citing the pandemic. Slots are limited at only a handful of U.S. airports, including Kennedy and LaGuardia in New York and Reagan Washington National outside Washington.
Just last month, when there were still hopes that the pandemic might finally wane, the European Commission confirmed that the 50% rule would be increased to 64% at the end of March.
Major airlines like Lufthansa, Air France and KLM say they are counting on more flexibility, including further decreasing the threshold level on the time slots.
More flexibility is required in the short term, not just in the summer but also in the current winter schedule, a Lufthansa statement said. With this crisis-related flexibility, airlines are forced to fly with planes almost empty to secure their slots. As an airline you can find yourself in the situation of losing slots because you can cancel flights or fly with half-empty aircraft if the rest of the season is very disappointing. The Dutch company said both situations are not desirable.
It puts the EU in a bind. On the one hand, it needs to make sure airport slots are open to fair competition, allow newcomers to vie for them if they are not used enough, and on the other hand, it wants to keep polluting planes from flying as much as possible.
Adina Valean, EU Transport Commissioner, acknowledged the threat of omicron to the travel industry, but as of Thursday she had not announced any new regulations.
Belgian Transport Minister Georges Gilkinet wrote a stinging letter and was lobbying his EU counterparts to join the initiative and increase pressure.
According to a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the high-level pollution created by these flights is totally counter to the EU's climate objectives.