That is behind the dispute over empty flights

Large-capacity jet from Lufthansa

Airlines per se find it difficult to become climate neutral. Requirements such as the so-called slot rules also stand in the way of the goal.

(Photo: imago images / JOKER)

Frankfurt The number is frightening: The Lufthansa Group will have to make 18,000 empty flights this winter so that no traffic rights are lost, Group boss Carsten Spohr recently calculated. Since then there has been heated debate about the regulation of the European Union and its sense or nonsense – also because empty flights do not at all fit the ambitious climate targets of the EU. In addition, airlines find it difficult to become climate neutral even without such guidelines.

Meanwhile, more and more politicians are getting involved in the dispute. At the beginning of the week, SPD parliamentary deputy Detlef Müller warned of empty flights. Before that, the Belgian Transport Minister Georges Gilkinet had asked the EU Transport Commissioner Adina Valean in a letter to relax the slot requirements even longer.

The case is complex. And there is not just one truth.

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