More transportation idiocy

The hits just keep coming:

A major airline is under fire from environmentalists for flying an aircraft across the Atlantic with only five passengers on board... Richard Dyer, Friends of the Earth's transport campaigner said: "Flying virtually empty planes is an obscene waste of fuel. Through no fault of their own , each passenger's carbon footprint for this flight is about 45 times what it would have been if the plane had been full.

Not only do these twits have no idea what it takes to run an airline they have no concept of capitalism. Sometimes airlines have been known to fly planes completely empty to reposition them into the flight schedule after repairs or cancellations. Railroads and truck lines sometimes do the same thing for the same reason. Nobody wants to run empty but sometimes the cost analysis demands it. These companies are in business to make money.

They had a full load of passengers for the return flight from London to America, which depended on that plane being there. Had they canceled the first flight the second also gets canceled so not only does American lose ALL the revenue, it pisses off ALL the passengers in both directions. To top it off they have to pay other airlines to fly the pissed off passengers. But regardless, it's THEIR decision to make either way.

It's hardly surprising these green people failed to chirp when private jets were used by attendees of the recent climate conference in Bali--clearly logic isn't their strong suit. But unfortunately this kind of story might be an ugly glimpse into a future when such people gain the power to micromanage the day to day affairs of private companies based on unproven scientific theories they agree with. Politically speaking, none of the GOP candidates now out of race gave any indication they'd ever approve of such a future but as to the presumptive nominee, well, all we know is that he boarded the environmental express long ago. He'll be ripe to the pressure.

Ah, but no worries, the next president would never allow such a future to occur here, right? Right. But just in case, some aren't taking any chances.