Sadly your case is quite atypical, most younger people do not have that option.
The norm in the US today is the 'gig' economy, where the work is only for that specific job, after which one returns to the unemployment pool.
That bypasses all the labor protection laws, on the pretext that each individual is an 'independent contractor'.
Silicon Valley learned this technique from Hollywood, AirBnB and Uber brought it to mass consciousness, perhaps we will learn to do better.
Goethe said that we treat others the way we are treated. Hopefully the people will revolt rather than to do that.
Blame the government rules, airport landing slots are a huge value, (sometimes the biggest asset the carrier has) and are lost unless they get used.
Ideally, the airline could use an electric powered two seater to serve as an environmentally attractive alternative, but that is outside the rules.
I doubt any of those "empty" flights are empty. They will be carrying cargo in the hold.
However, the point remains, and governments really should be intelligent in relaxing use it or lose it rules in the current crisis. The airline sector needs protecting right now.
As I said, it's EU law that leads to this, we are still deemed a member for certain purposes. The quetion was asked about the UK status in relation to Von de Leyens speech so I doubt we'd rock the boat by going rogue on this just yet.
Von der Leyen's speech yesterday made clear that all production of required, medical equipment, will not, without special permissions, be allowed to leave the EU area so we should, be in line for our share of EU produced ventilators and other stuf. She stated that no single country in the EU, can produce enough on it's own and the combined production of the whole EU will be shared.
Regarding cargo on the emty flights, you'd think the ailines would utilise the cabin area for maximum profit, take all the seats out maybe?
I doubt any EU national governments give a crap about what EU laws or the EU Commission says right now. Some Schengen states are closing their borders, and some are only allowing their own nationals to enter. At the end of the day, national governments are responsible to their own electorate, not to bureaucrats in another country.
I really wish people wouldn't abuse crises for their own political agenda, but it is sadly happening. It's even obvious from how many countries hurried to first lock the borders, despite the virus already spreading internally.
Even if the EU fails to do something impactful about coronavirus, that won't be a reason to dissolve it, unless it really actively hurts the situation. Hopefully people won't forget the immense amount of benefit it brings in the times where we are not all fearing of death.
For me personally, I am anxious to see what happens by July. We have tickets to go to a wedding in Austria.
CDC last night warned folks to avoid gatherings of more than 50 people for the next 8 week...ouch. I keep hoping things will start returning to normal by May
Several states (Ohio, California, probably some others) have ordered closure of all restaurants and bars, largely because too many people were ignoring the warnings. Some state parks are also seeing widespread closure due to the shutdown. I was really really hoping that even if visitor centers are closed, the parks themselves would be open for birding. Hopefully Wisconsin will keep there parks open.
I see zero logic in preventing individuals taking walks in places where they may not actually see anyone else. Several of the places I go to, I rarely see anyone.
Even if the EU fails to do something impactful about coronavirus, that won't be a reason to dissolve it, unless it really actively hurts the situation. Hopefully people won't forget the immense amount of benefit it brings in the times where we are not all fearing of death.
Hope I'm wrong for all our sakes but I think you can forget the wedding.
I take my toddler to a playgroup on Fridays and expected that numbers would be well down but they actually weren't far off normal which surprised me.