Environmental campaigners today attacked a budget airline which proposed filling flights between Norwich and Dublin with temporary staff in an effort to boost passenger numbers.
Friends of the Earth said Flybe’s plans for filling seats were "madness" and called for an investigation into the "crazy economics" of the aviation industry.
Flybe, which is based in Exeter, Devon, England, hit on the idea when faced with paying a £280,000 (€350,000) penalty because it had not met a passenger target imposed by bosses at Norwich International Airport as part of a commercial deal.
Under the deal Flybe had committed to fly 15,000 passengers on the route but, as of March 29th, they were 172 passengers short of the target.
In a statement released today Flybe said they have taken "the unusual step of putting on two extra flights [today] to meet the demands of Norwich International Airport".
"These flights will be full of normal fare paying passengers however if we do not reach the 172 target we will place temporary staff on to the flight to reach the airports target, these temporary staff have been put on stand-by," the statement added.
However, Friends of the Earth’s aviation campaigner Tony Bosworth called for an investigation and asked, "How can it possibly make financial sense to lay on extra flights and pay people to go on them?"
Norwich airport bosses also criticised Flybe for pointlessly damaging the environment.