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91Èȱ¬ South East investigation challenges airlines on overflying
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Airlines are deliberately flying longer routes to avoid paying air
traffic control charges, a 91Èȱ¬ South East investigation has discovered.
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Thomas Cook and Monarch Airlines frequently burn up to an extra tonne
and a half of aircraft fuel to avoid paying air traffic control charges
on flights to the Canary Islands.
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The 100-mile diversion over the Atlantic Ocean, known within the airline
industry as the Tango route, can produce an extra three tonnes of CO2 –
the same amount caused by a family car driving around the M25 more than
68 times.
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During a month long investigation, 91Èȱ¬ South East monitored 44 Thomas
Cook flights from Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham flying to and
from the Canary Islands.
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The direct route, flying over French, Spanish and Portuguese airspace,
incurs £1,578 overflight charges from the countries air traffic control
agencies.
The Tango route incurs overflight charges of £968. With the extra fuel
costs for the longer journey this leaves an average saving of £99 per
flight.
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The 91Èȱ¬ South East investigations team was tipped off about the Tango
routes by a Thomas Cook pilot.
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The pilot, who has asked for anonymity, says: "There are parts of Europe
which are cheaper to fly over than other parts.
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"So you can lengthen a flight by maybe 15 minutes or more to avoid
expensive bits of airspace.
To get into the Tango routes you have to fly out over Ireland."
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The 91Èȱ¬ has seen the detailed flight plans of routes from England to the
Canaries.
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The investigations team presented this evidence to a former airline
Operations Director of over 40 years' experience within the industry.
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The Operations Director, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "Of the 44
flights monitored, 25 flew an oceanic routing and 19 flew direct over
French, Spanish and Portuguese airspace.
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"Of the 25 flights which flew the ocean routing, 15 derived no wind
benefit from doing so, and because the ocean routing is longer than a
direct routing, an increased fuel burn was inevitable.
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"In total, 16 out of 44 flight routings suffered an increased fuel burn
as a result."
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The Operations Director concluded: "The overall trend is that there is
a high proportion of flights taking ocean routes, when there was no
clear wind advantage to do so.
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"I would hazard a guess that overflight charges may have been factored
into these routings, owing to the disproportionately higher cost of the
direct routing. I can understand why this might be done.
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"The Tango routes are quieter, and are less likely to suffer slot
restrictions. Airlines may be able to benefit from more punctual
schedules. Schedule punctuality is really important for the charters."
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The 91Èȱ¬ South East Today investigations team took their data to Air Data
Ltd, a Gatwick-based company which calculates air routes for the airline
industry.
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Andy Farrar of Air Data calculated the fuel burnt on a flight from
Manchester to Tenerife on the 16 November which took the Tango route.
He compared the fuel burn with an imaginary direct flight.
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Mr Farrar said: "The flight which flew over the ocean used 14.7 tonnes
of fuel and took four hours 17 minutes.
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"The direct route would have used 13.1 tonnes and have been shorter at
three hours 57 minutes."
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Mari Martiskainen, a climate expert at Sussex University, calculated that
the extra fuel burn has contributed three tonnes of additional CO2
greenhouse gas per flight.
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She said: "That's equal to the amount of CO2 emitted by 150 car journeys
between London and Brighton.
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"Carbon dioxide emissions within the airline industry have grown by six
to seven per cent every year compared to around one to two per cent growth
in other sectors."
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Thomas Cook's stated environmental policy is to "Continuously strive to
improve our environmental performance and to minimise any negative
impact resulting from our operations."
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When asked to comment the German-owned Thomas Cook said: "Thomas Cook
Airlines can confirm that it does operate routes to the Canary Islands,
which include using Tango routes.
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"These routes are used when they are the most efficient and when it is
necessary to avoid lengthy air traffic control delays caused by airspace
congestion in European airspace."
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The Luton-based airline Monarch admitted using the Tango routes to avoid
paying overflight charges but also claimed they were used to maintain
flight schedules.
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A spokesman said: "By travelling via these oceanic routes, the company
avoids paying French and/or Spanish overflight charges and instead pays
a much smaller oceanic airspace overflight charge to the UK and Ireland.
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"However, this overflight cost saving has to be balanced against the
additional mileage which increases both the flight time and fuel related
costs.
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"In a highly competitive marketplace, where customers demand
increasingly low fares, we have to manage our costs as tightly as
possible.
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"Ultimately the environmental impact comes down to whether the
travelling public is prepared to pay."
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HB
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