Frequent Flier Tax? Ban on Private ‘Planes?
By: Chandu Visweswariah
The sky is never empty. Between 1.2 million and 3 million people are flying in airplanes at any given time [1]. Less than 10% of the world’s population flies in any given year [2]. In fact, less than 20% of the world’s population has ever been in an airplane. You won’t be surprised to learn that 1% of the world’s population is responsible for 50% of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) from commercial aviation [3]. These are typically frequent fliers or users of private ’planes.
So how big is this problem? Aviation contributes roughly 1 billion metric tons or 2.5% of global CO2 emissions, but due to effects like contrails and aerosols emitted at high altitude, it is responsible for about 4% of global warming [4]. Unlike personal-use vehicles, home heating, electricity and cooking, the emissions are skewed disproportionately to the top of the economic ladder, making flying an elite luxury. Aviation wins the dubious prize of being the least democratized of all emissions, i.e., emitting the most on behalf of the richest people on the planet while doing the most harm to those who can least afford to protect themselves from climate change, let alone fly.
Emissions have quadrupled since the mid-60s and continue to increase.
I started paying attention to these facts after watching a documentary called “Guilt Trip” at the New York City Climate Film Festival as part of Climate Week. The movie runs 15 minutes and 46 seconds long and is available to be watched on YouTube [5]. In the film, a commercial pilot named George Hibberd narrates how he grew up with ambitions of being a pilot. After many years of hard work, his dream was fulfilled and he landed a job as a commercial pilot, based in London.
Hibberd was once flying over Greece in a trans-continental flight when he noticed forest fires on the ground far below the ’plane. Something came over him, and his thoughts about environmental damage from the aviation industry crystallized. He realized that flying did a lot of environmental damage. He had immense trouble juxtaposing that realization with the push to expand airports and aviation across the U.K. The documentary depicts how he was torn between his dream job and the reality of the impacts of his industry. While he had been concerned about climate stability, he had previously compartmentalized those feelings, all along living his professional dream. Flying over the forest fires in Greece galvanized the breaking of barriers and forced a reckoning.
The documentary goes on to reveal that George sacrificed his dream profession and joined a climate action organization. What is more, another pilot Todd Smith joined him, and they began to educate their former colleagues in the aviation industry.
What can be done about this significant and burgeoning damage to our planet? Frequent flier programs are perverse incentives to get people to fly more and thus do more harm – at a time when every metric ton of GHGs matters! Instead, should we have a “frequent flier tax,” as some in the movement have urged, to make sure that those who fly the most pay to offset the concomitant environmental impact? A simple “dollars per mile” tax multiplied by an emissions factor would suffice. The emissions factor would be 1.0 for economy-class travel,
3.0 for business travel, 5.0 for first-class travel and 100.0 for the use of a private ’plane. This way, there could be significant funding raised to offset emissions in some other sector of the economy, e.g., investing in solar farms, capping landfills, encouraging EVs, subsidizing heat pumps, popularizing induction stovetops, etc.
Another idea is to ban private ’planes. The argument goes as follows. Private ’planes cause too many emissions and too much harm to the planet to be allowed for the transport of just one or a handful of passengers. Perhaps fossil-fueled private planes can be phased out over a 5-year period so as not to shock that industry too much. By then, the nascent electric aviation industry will hopefully kick in and take over the market in a zero-emissions manner.
In a just system, frequent, upgraded or private travel would be disincentivized, penalized or banned. It’s time for a hard push-back against a system that incentivizes greater use of fossil fuels!
Meanwhile, here are some things you can do:
- Make sure you offset your flights any time you fly. See ClimeCo’s website as an example. Flights up to 10,000 miles will only cost you $25.00.
- Certain business or family travel may be unavoidable. However, try not to fly for pleasure. Ask yourself the question whether you can reconcile harm to others and the planet by burning fossil fuels for your pleasure. Take a road trip in your EV, or a train trip instead.
- Planning to fly private? Consider premium travel on commercial jets instead, which will help the planet as well as your pocketbook, and be more just to the rest of the world.
- Thinking of flying business class or first class? Consider giving up this comfort in exchange for a “low emissions” treat like a hotel upgrade or spa package.
- Are there ways that you, like the pilot, may be compartmentalizing unnecessary and harmful GHG emissions? What does your own reckoning look like?
To end, here’s a quote from Mahatma Gandhi.
Reporter: Mr. Gandhi, why do you travel 3rd class [on trains]?
Mr. Gandhi: Because there is no 4th class.
Just as Gandhi showed his empathy for the less fortunate, can we make some adjustments in our flying habits to decrease the harm being felt by the poorer 80% of the world’s population?
References
[1] From Flight Aware, https://www.quora.com/At-any-moment-how-many-people-on-average-are-flying-on-airplanes-across-the-world.
[2] S. Gössling, and A. Humpe, “The global scale, distribution and growth of aviation: Implications for climate change.” Global Environmental Change, 2020, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378020307779.
[3] S. Gössling, “One percent of the world’s population accounts for more than half of flying emissions,” Lund University, https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/one-percent-worlds-population-accounts-more-half-flying-emissions, November 2020.
[4] Our World In Data, https://ourworldindata.org/global-aviation-emissions.
[5] YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHHA0tilyzQ.
These blog posts are opinion and analysis articles. The views expressed by the author(s) are solely their own and not those of any organization they are affiliated with or CURE100.
