Matthew Lesh, IEA Head of Public Policy, has penned an article for The Spectator on the phenomenon of ‘ghost flights’. This describes the practice of airlines launching flights without passengers to ensure that they maintain their allocated spaces in EU airports.

As Matthew points out, “Under EU rules, airlines must use 80 per cent of their allocated slots or they risk losing their spaces to other flights.”

This policy not only highlights the inefficiency of EU regulation, but also the need for the UK, having left the EU, to abandon such policies.

“The United Kingdom — outside of the European Union — now has the opportunity to entirely diverge from the IATA rules.”

“But until the UK government works up the guts to diverge from these antiquated EU rules, we are just going to see worse passenger outcomes, countless more ‘ghost flights’ and unnecessary environmental damage.”

Read the full article here.