Following the furore over a near-empty American Airlines' transatlantic flight, now it's British Airways in the firing line. The exact circumstances that led to these BA flights operating empty aren't completely clear from the report in the Daily Telegraph of London.
As those in the industry are well-aware, empty and near-empty flights can occur for various operational reasons. I'm not surprised that those outside the industry would find this difficult to understand or that many people are quite cross about it - that anger seems pretty forgivble to me. No doubt there will be many more stories worldwide like this one. I think that's unfortunate because it's a distraction from the serious aero-environmental debate - but it will take an awful lot of education to get into context.
What's less forgivable is the response of Peter Ainsworth.
Ainsworth is the UK's shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs - the Conservative Party's top man on the environment in other words. Well, I realise he must have been phoned at the weekend, but his response was to accuse BA of operating 'ghost flights' (to Bombay and Hong Kong) in order to preserve its slots at Heathrow. Either he truly believes that, in which case you really have to wonder about his competence, or he was just repeating the allegation to make political capital in which case you have to wonder about his sense of responsibility. Anyway, it would be good if he could find a discreet way to back away from those remarks.
