The EU has dropped a rule meaning that airlines must run the majority of their scheduled services or risk losing profitable landing slots in a bid to give the industry some relief amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said that the bloc would temporarily do away with the measure as airlines continued to cancel thousands of flight due to a slump in passenger demand.

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Prior to the announcement, some airlines had been flying “ghost flights” with almost empty planes simply to ensure that they would not lose their slots.

von der Leyen said: “The Commission will put forward, very rapidly, legislation. We want to make it easier for airlines to keep their airport slot even if they do not operate flights in those slots because of the declining traffic.

“This temporary measure helps our industry but it also helps our environment. It will relieve the pressure on aviation industry and in particular on smaller airline companies.”

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Yesterday transport secretary Grant Shapps wrote to the Commission urging it to suspend the so-called 80-20 rule, saying that not doing so “wold be entirely out of step with both the United Kingdom’s and the European Union’s climate commitments”.

Germany also joined in with the calls, saying it would be both environmentally and financially beneficial not to suspend the rules.

Earlier today Virgin Atlantic confirmed that it had been forced into operating such flights in order to protect against losing slots at major travel hubs like Heathrow Airport.

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“Passenger demand for air travel has dramatically fallen due to Covid-19 and in some instances we are being forced to fly almost empty planes or lose our valuable slots”, said Shai Weiss, Virgin Atlantic’s chief executive.

The commission did not give details of how long the suspension would last.