More on that "Flybe" story

From this morning's Guardian:

A "green" budget airline was criticised by environmental campaigners yesterday after it admitted advertising for actors to make up passenger numbers to ensure it reached an airport quota.

The Exeter-based carrier apparently needed phantom farepayers because of a dispute with Norwich international airport over passenger numbers.

To avoid a £280,000 penalty, Flybe also put its own staff on standby to fill seats, laid on extra flights, and offered free trips. 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".

It increased the Dublin flights from three to 11 this weekend, offering 200 free return tickets, though in the end did not use any actors.

The row is a huge embarrassment for an airline claiming to have environmental credentials, having last year launched an "eco-labelling" scheme, telling passengers how much carbon dioxide and noise levels are generated by each flight.

"We have a responsibility to reduce the carbon emissions produced by our aircraft," it announced.

A spokesman for Greenpeace said Flybe's environmental efforts were a sham. "This just shows there is no such thing as an environmentally-responsible carrier. These revelations are indicative of the binge-flying culture where environmental considerations come so far down the list of priorities as to be virtually ignored."

A Flybe spokesman said the airline regretted its move but said that Norwich airport had shown "petty behaviour" in refusing to accept a compromise deal and in "forcing" it to run superfluous flights.

Now that's not very "Green", is it? Wonder what they'll do next to improve their image...