To encourage companies to continue with video conferencing in place of non-essential corporate air travel, the government could consider heavily raising the tax rate on flights bought by companies, with the rate set at its highest level for domestic flights, to encourage a shift to train travel. There would likely need to be some leeway for certain industries / business reasons, but to prevent the tax being avoided, there would need to be as few exceptions to the rule as possible. Airlines themselves should also be taxed more heavily depending on the proportion of corporate flyers on the plane, to double down on this. Empty seats should not be taxed more heavily (as some have suggested) as this would only encourage airlines to sell seats even more cheaply to avoid the tax, which would encourage more people to fly. Instead taxing those using the planes would raise the cost to the airline and be more effective at encouraging an overall decrease in flights operated. If air travel is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, then it’s only fair that the airline industry, and consumers benefitting from it, should start contributing more to cleaning up the problems it causes. The tax raised from this should be fed exclusively into a green fund for financing the roll out of electric car recharge points, investment in renewable energy, and other green initiatives.
Individual consumers should also be encouraged to fly less. A central database could be maintained tracking the number of flights each person has taken in any rolling 12 month period. All British citizens exceeding 1 international flight in the last 12 months should be taxed more heavily on further international flights in the same 12 month period. This tax level should be increased exponentially with each successive international flight. Richer people may be able to fly just as much as they do now, but they should pay a hefty price to do so to make up for it. Some leeway would need to be given to those born overseas though, to allow them to travel to their country of origin up to 3 times a year to visit family without having to pay more in tax. Domestic flights for British citizens should also all be taxed more heavily for all passengers. There are very few scenarios in which someone would need to fly from London to Manchester when a train between the two cities takes 2hrs, and individuals should therefore be financially discouraged from doing so. The exceptions would be for domestic travel to non-mainland locations within the British Isles, where train travel is not possible.
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