Campaigners demand stronger tax on private jets as luxury travel in UK soars
While government refuses to reveal details of Prime Minister’s private jet use at taxpayer expense
Campaigners have announced that private jets ‘are even worse than we thought’ after new research presents their high carbon footprint and low rate of taxation in the UK as post-pandemic luxury travel grows.
One in ten flights from UK airports are now from private jets, research by the climate action campaign group Possible found. Pre-pandemic, 7.5% of flights were private, which peaked at 20% during the pandemic and now sits at 10%.
Emissions from private jets are 30 times higher than normal flights, yet activists have stressed that the taxation is not proportionate. Half of private jet passengers pay the same rate of tax as passengers on standard flights, whilst one in five private jets pay no tax at all.
Possible are calling for a ban on private jets by 2030, with a proper tax system in place until then. The group’s report ‘jetting away with it’ found that, the more polluting an individual’s flight is, the lower the effective rate of tax per tonne of emissions.
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