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How much are those Heathrow landing slots worth?
Now that Open Skies is in full effect, carriers left and right are scrambling to take advantage of all of the sweet landing slots in the EU's congested airports.Case in point, London's Heathrow Airport. Most travelers flying into the United Kingdom prefer landing at Heathrow because of better connections and proximity to London via the Tube. But landing slots at LHR are all full, so whenever one opens up, competition is hot to fill it in. Similarly, carriers want to hold on to their high-value slots to make sure that any competition doesn't come in and snatch up some capacity.
So what do you do when you can't book enough passengers to justify flying in and out of your slot? This case might show up if, say hypothetically, you've been cutting capacity like crazy to save cash and demand is low because travel is so expensive. Sound like any economy you know?
In that case, what do you do with your landing slot? Well, according to BMI, or British Midland Airways, you keep flying. Without passengers.
British Airways did the same thing earlier this year to try to preserve landing slots and we figured that the subsequent disgust with their MO combined with the price of fuel would be a deterrent for other carriers to do the same thing. But I guess those slots are just too valuable.
Why not at least auction off the empty seats on the aircraft? I know that you have to pay flight attendants if you have passengers onboard, but I feel like you can make enough to pay a few employees and offset the price of jet fuel a bit. But I guess that would make too much sense.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Carol Jul 16th 2008 7:32PM
What's the dog's DESCRIPTION?!
a normal person Jul 16th 2008 10:12PM
What kind of idiots put this online and don't even show a pic. of the dog or description.....Wow, guess you really care ....NOT!
Fred Jul 17th 2008 12:42AM
United did the very same thing to my dog at the same airport, he was in a crate delayed for 8 hours from Chicago due to weather. We made arrangements to walk and give him water at Dulles.
They lost him for well over 2 hours. We were boarded for our flight to LA and were assured he was on board.
We got him back in LA after 12 hours, he was soaked in urine, chilled to the bone from holding and traumatized.
United denied any resposiblility and all media we tried to alert ignored the story.
A warning: If you love your dog don't fly him on United.