Low cost airline growth?  Its all an act...

Occasionally you come across a story that leaves you scratching your head wondering just what the heck is going on…

I almost choked on my muesli reading this in the The Guardian today.

Low cost airline Flybe has admitted advertising for actors to make up passenger numbers to ensure it reached an airport quota.

It is claimed that Flybe needed the actors to fly backwards and forwards between Norwich and Dublin (for free of course) in order to boost passenger numbers. Flybe was 172 people short of its 15,000 annual target on the Norwich-to-Dublin route and placed an advert on the website StarNow.com, to find extras who could be “customers”.

Not quite the action of a business that claims to be a “green airline”, but I suppose that commercial considerations came before environmental concerns on this occasion. It sounds like a simple equation - hire some cheap actors to pretent to be customers for a few days, or pay a hefty fine. Maybe the real culprit in this is Norwich airport for setting arbitrary passenger targets?

Not surprisingly, the news has troubled environmental pressure groups.

The Green Party said Flybe was an “environmental vandal” and air industry regulators should question whether the company was fit to operate.

Friends of the Earth said ministers should investigate to establish whether Flybe’s “absurd” tactics were a one-off or widespread within the industry.

So the next time you are flying, take a little longer to look round your fellow passengers. it could be that the person in the seat next to you might just be pretending to be going somewhere. Of course, it might be you!