For a period of meter back in 2007 , " ghost flights " with no rider onboard plague London ’s Heathrow Airport and caused an tumultuousness among environmentalists , asJalopnikreports .
Six time a week , the now - defunct British Mediterranean Airways sent planes that were practically empty — save for crowd fellow member — from London to Cardiff , Wales , and back again the next day . And it all had to do with Heathrow ’s rigid policing of runway right wing , as YouTube canal Half as Interesting explains in the video below .
Despite being the UK ’s largest and busiest aerodrome , Heathrow only has two runway . For comparison , Chicago O’Hare International Airport , which sees rough the same act of passengers , has seven . As a termination , the 650 casual " slot pairs " that accord airline the right field to take off and land at Heathrow are costly and grueling to come by . They also lean to overtop sky - high cost when they ’re deal and sold . Oman Air , for illustration , paid $ 75 million for a prime early dayspring slot in 2016 .
Airlines have to use their slot at least 80 percentage of the clock time over a six - month period , lest it be forfeited to another airline . So when British Mediterranean ’s service from London to Tashkent , Uzbekistan , was abruptly canceled , it scrambled to guarantee it would n’t misplace its one-armed bandit at Heathrow . Hence the shade flights .
Environmentalists , of class , were less than pleased with the fact that each 140 - mi flying lead infive tonsof CO2 being released into the atmospheric state , according to the BBC . The ghost flight finally ended and British Mediterranean Airways wassoldafter suffer a series of expiration . As Half as Interesting notes , although extreme cases like these are n’t as usual anymore , some airlines schedule cheaper flights more often in the wintertime to ensure they ’re cause full use of their slot .
And Heathrow is once again taking some heat fromenvironmentalists . The airport is be after toexpandby add a third runway , which sparked protests outside the Houses of Parliament last month .
[ h / tJalopnik ]
