Why an airline operated empty flights from Heathrow for a year

For a whole year, British Mediterranean Airways operated six flights a week from Heathrow Airport to Cardiff, that were completely empty. Here is why.

In October 2006, British Mediterranean Airways began operating flights from London/Heathrow to Cardiff six times a week with no passengers on board.

If you’re thinking this goes against the basic principles of running a profitable airline, you’d be correct. In fact, according to The Telegraph, operating the flights cost the carrier more than £2m every month over a one-year period.

BMed A320
British Mediterranean Airways operated a fleet of 11 aircraft comprising all Airbus examples. Wikimedia Commons/Konstantin von Wedelstaedt

The services were conducted to stop its landing slots at Heathrow falling into rivals’ hands. To keep them, airlines must use them regularly or risk having them relocated to other airlines.

Prior to October that year, BMed – which was a British Airways franchise partner – operated flights to Tashkent in Uzbekistan but was forced to scrap the services following civil unrest there.

BMed A321
BMed operated under the British Airways brand as a franchise partner. Wikimedia Commons/Konstantin von Wedelstaedt

Speaking at the time, David Richardson, the airline’s CEO said: “The Uzbek market collapsed, but we knew we would want to use those timings again this summer. It wasn't ideal, but we wanted to keep hold of it.”

The International Air Transport Association’s ‘Worldwide Airport Slots Group’ manages and allocates slots at airports around the globe. In Europe, for an airline to keep its share, it must use them 80% of the time, this is the reason why BMed operated the empty rotations to Cardiff.

LHR
With its two runways, Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world. Aviation Image Network/Bailey

Slots can be very expensive, especially at airports like Heathrow where the facility is already running at near capacity. A good example of how pricy they can be is the sale of Kenya Airlines’ pair to Oman Air in 2016. The flag carrier sold its daily 6.30am arrival and 8.25am departure slot for $75m.

In November 2007, just over a year after it began operating the ghost flights, BMed scrapped them following its takeover by BMI.

BMI
BMed was purchased by UK regional airline BMI in February 2007, but remained a BA franchisee until October that year. Wikimedia Commons/Osipov Dmitry

A spokesman for the carrier’s new owners confirmed at the time that, “the ghost flights no longer exist.”

BMed was not the only airline to protect its slots at Heathrow. In 2004, Qantas purchased two slot pairs from Flybe for $25m but until they were able to set up flights to Sydney, they needed to utilise them.

Qantas
In 2004, Qantas purchased slots off Flybe but couldn't start services to Sydney immediately. Wikimedia Commons/Brian

Since the Australian flag carrier wasn’t permitted to operate domestic flights in the UK, it chartered a British Aerospace 146 to fly between the London hub and Manchester. Passengers were actually allowed to book this flight, but only as a connection from one of Qantas’ long-haul services which meant that on many occasions just a handful of travellers used the service.

This, however, was slightly better than having a completely empty aircraft like in the case of BMed’s Cardiff flights.