The BBC, in a stunning waste of our money, has discovered a shocking truth: airlines would rather save money than save the environment.

This, truly, is right up there with bear shit found in wood and funny hat found on head of pontiff in the table of all time great journalism.

Airlines are deliberately flying longer routes over the Atlantic Ocean to avoid paying air traffic control charges, a BBC Investigation has discovered.

Thomas Cook and Monarch frequently burn extra aircraft fuel to avoid higher fees on flights to the Canary Islands.

Of course, beyond the obvious benefits of saving money and annoying greens, these ‘tango routes’ have another benefit: they have fewer points of failure. Because they don’t rely as much on the French and Spanish air traffic control systems, they have less to lose if, for example, the French air traffic controllers go on strike, or if Spain closes its airspace to UK flights because Gibraltar doesn’t want to speak Spanish, thankyouverymuch…

So: tango routes save money, piss off the greens and allow the airlines to be more reliable.

What was the downside again?