A “frequent flyer levy” that charges travellers more every time they fly is among recommendations put forward today (Wednesday) by the government’s independent climate advisors.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) suggests a levy on families who fly regularly should help limit growth in airline traffic to 16% until 2040.
It said: “This is a tax that increases with the number of flights an individual takes. As higher income groups tend to be less responsive to price changes, tax rates would need to be sufficiently high to manage demand.”
The CCC also suggests Air Passenger Duty could be increased and additional bands added “to better reflect the emissions impacts of flying”.
Other options that could play a “supplementary role” in managing aviation demand include limiting airport expansion.
“Capacity constraints would likely lead to an increase in ticket prices, reducing demand,” the CCC said.
The report’s findings came hours after transport secretary Heidi Alexander told airline leaders she would “take the brakes off growth” ahead of a likely approval tomorrow (Thursday) of Gatwick’s plans to bring a secondary emergency runway into full use.
However, the Climate Change Committee recommended that: “Growth in aviation demand is managed through ensuring that the cost of decarbonising aviation is reflected in the price of flying. The share of sustainable aviation fuel used increases gradually, with a growing portion of this coming from synthetic fuels in the 2040s.”
The CCC no longer directly advises against net airport expansion, as it has previously, but warned the costs of decarbonising aviation will need to be picked up by airlines, which will likely drive up ticket prices.
“It is likely that a mixture of approaches will be required to manage aviation demand growth in line with Net Zero,” the report noted.
“Most demand management policies will increase ticket prices, either directly through taxes or indirectly through technology costs passed on by the aviation industry.
“Tax levers can raise revenue and allow the government to account for distributional impacts, while other approaches leave the industry to identify the most efficient approach.”
It added: “While future ticket prices and UK income are highly uncertain, as an example, if the government’s high carbon value is applied to aviation emissions and airlines are assumed to pass 100% of costs onto tickets, by 2050, a return ticket from London to Alicante, Spain would increase by about £150, and a return ticket from London to New York would increase by about £300.”
The CCC said: “By 2040, our ‘Balanced Pathway’ sees SAF [sustainable aviation fuel] meet 17% of aviation fuel demand, providing an alternative to kerosene in planes. SAF is a mix of biofuel and domestically produced synthetic fuel.
“We assume that the aviation sector bears the costs of meeting Net Zero for flying and makes use of both SAF and engineered removals.”
The Balanced Pathway was described as an “ambitious, deliverable pathway” for the UK to reach Net Zero by 2050, based on detailed modelling of cost-effective, feasible decarbonisation options.
The report details a range of measures and called for “sustained household and business choices” to reduce “high-carbon activities” such as flying.