Should there be a frequent flyer tax?

A new report by Stay Grounded and the New Economics Foundation has found that introducing a frequent flyer levy could reduce air travel emissions by 21% and raise £54bn a year in Europe.  

What was the study?

In October 2024, Stay Grounded and New Economics Foundation published a study on the Frequent Flying Levy in Europe. The study argues that aviation is highly polluting and primarily benefits a small portion of the European population who fly excessively, and suggests a frequent flyer levy would be the best way to tackle this. 

The key findings:

• Frequent flyers are in the minority - roughly 4.5% of the Western European population fly the most. 

• Existing air taxes and regulations do little to discourage excessive flying (and frequent flyer schemes/air miles actually encourage it) and emissions.

• A frequent flyer levy could cut air travel’s carbon emissions by 21%.

What would a frequent-flying levy do? 

A frequent-flyer levy would be a tax on all airline tickets that increases after every two single flights taken. So a first round-trip flight each year is tax-free, but after that, there would be a €50 tax on the second flight, €100 on the third, etc. The aim would be to reduce excessive flying and raise funds that could ideally be used to invest in low-carbon transport infrastructure. 

This would contribute to:

• Decarbonisation: reducing demand for frequent flights will help decrease overall emissions and encourage other forms of travelling

• Equality of travel: a levy for frequent flyers would mean that those who pollute more pay more

• Encourages sustainable alternatives: without the incentives to fly more, it encourages travellers to choose trains or virtual meetings over flights

• More funds: the additional tax would raise 63.6bn euros annually at no cost to most people. We hope this funding could be put back into low-carbon forms of transport and infrastructure

Credit: Stay Grounded and New Economics frequent-flyer levy study, 2024 

Our take

The flight industry is heavily undertaxed and under-regulated, resulting in artificially cheap flights at the expense of our planet. Frequent flyer schemes and air miles incentivise excessive flight travel, and the reduced costs put overland travel on an uneven playing field. Private jets have next to no regulations, and jet fuel (kerosene) is not taxed at all, whereas train fuel is. 

It’s disproportionate too, with just 1% of the world’s population responsible for more than half the global climate emissions from aviation. At a time when climate change is causing irreversible damage to our planet - urgent action needs to be taken and low-carbon transport needs to be prioritised.  Implementing these taxes would help reduce demand and encourage more sustainable forms of travel.

We’d love to see the money raised from this tax used to make low-carbon, overland transport more affordable and accessible for all.

“We fully support the NEF and Stay Grounded proposal for a Frequent Flying Levy in the EU. A Frequent Flyer Levy could help reduce the demand for flights - especially where there are fantastic ground-based alternatives - and provide funding to make flight-free travel, especially rail, more affordable. Shifting current monetary incentives to fly into low-carbon alternatives like trains and buses is one of the biggest impacts we can make in the short term. As well as being better for the environment, flight-free trips are wonderful in themselves, allowing us to experience the joy of the journey itself and experience more of the world we’re travelling through, rather than flying over it.”

— Cat Jones, CEO and Founder of Byway 

To support the petition and read the study in detail, head here.