It came as a surprise to learn in yesterday's Sunday Times that there are daily flights between Heathrow and Cardiff. But England fans needn't rush to book their flight for next weekend's Wales v England rugby international in the Welsh capital: these are ghost flights, run by British Mediterranean Airways just to preserve a valuable landing slot at Heathrow. (The slot was used for a service to Tashkent that was suspended in October after civil unrest in Uzbekistan.)
This was a great scoop for the paper - a genuinely interesting story that graphically illustrates the clash between the interests of the environment and an airline's desperation to save a landing slot worth up to £10 million. The Sunday Times says that over five months the ghost flights will have generated as much carbon dioxide as 36,000 car journeys along the M4.
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