More airline chicanery: UK carriers flying longer routes to save cash

In an earlier post, we recently discovered that British Airways was flying ghost planes across the Atlantic, wasting tons of fuel and dumping head-slapping volumes of carbon into the atmosphere.

The hijinks continue. According to the BBC, several carriers including Thomas Cook have been taking dodgy routes around EU countries (at the expense of tons of carbon) just to cut down on air traffic control fees. These particular routes investigated by the BBC were flying between the UK and Canary Islands and have been diverted over water in what’s called a Tango Route. No telling how many other flights not investigated by the BBC are regularly diverted to save ATC fees.

What I get the biggest kick out of is Thomas Cook’s environmental policy, to “continuously strive to improve our environmental performance and to minimise any negative impact resulting from our operations.”

Sounds great fellas.

You guys all know my stance on corporate greed so I won’t get on the soapbox today; instead, I’ll just rest my head on my desk and wait for the apocalypse.