[cmcaine]

If you just give fines to companies that don't run flights on routes then you can impose a penalty without incentivising empty or near-empty flights.

[qubex]

Excellent idea! So now you only have two more problems: lobbyists being paid to influence the fines (so that they don’t cause their clients so much harm as to make their anti-competitive strategies unprofitable); and regulatory capture (where regulatory bodies become beholden to those whom they regulate).

[cmcaine]

Those are already problems with aviation, so that's nothing new. The existing rules didn't emerge from primordial ooze, they were also influenced by lobbyists and have certain effects.

[danem]

The threat of regulatory capture is present with every regulatory solution.

[dodobirdlord]

If the fine is larger than the price of the fuel then they'll just fly the flights.