Our view

We need an environmentally sustainable air transport policy.

Such a policy would mean the Government would:

  • strongly pursue an end to the global tax anomaly where the industry pays no tax on aviation fuel
  • end the current anomaly of the zero-rating of VAT for air transport fuel
  • raise Air Passenger Duty or other taxes to internalise the external costs of air transport – in other words, make the industry and air travellers pay a fairer contribution towards the environmental damage they cause, rather than imposing those costs on society and the natural world
  • adopt the World Health Organisation's internationally recognised standards on noise for assessing the effect on people's quality of life
  • update its maps showing noise around airports so they include 50 decibels contours – which are more appropriate for assessing the impact of noise from aviation in tranquil areas and on vulnerable groups, like school children and the elderly
  • strongly pursue, at the European level, measures to allow 'slot auctioning', particularly at congested airports. This will ensure existing capacity and aircraft are used most efficiently. Additionally, this would provide income for the Treasury and offset some of the external costs that air transport imposes
  • pursue a European emissions trading scheme that would cap the level of carbon emissions
  • extend restrictions on the most intrusive night time flights at all airports
  • include the adverse effect of noise from aircraft on the countryside in calculating the cost of air travel on society
  • commission research to examine how noise in tranquil areas impacts on people's quality of life and experience of the countryside
  • promote an integrated transport system, including environmentally acceptable alternatives to domestic and short-haul flying, such as high speed electric rail
  • maintain a plan-led system for development, making the best use of existing infrastructure within environmental capacity constraints including placing enforceable limits on air and noise pollution at airports; carrying out a Strategic Environmental Assessment of the impacts of air transport; and introducing measures to reflect the Government's commitment to protecting tranquil areas set out in the Rural White Paper 2000
  • vigorously pursue and encourage continuing technological improvements to reduce individual aircraft's environmental damage