Time for a frequent flyer tax? A look at A Free Ride In the climate change movement, you’ll it comes to aviation. At one end of the scale, groups such as the Extinction Rebellion feel that air travel should only be restricted to the most necessary cases unless it reaches a zero carbon target within five years. By comparison, the default airline industry position is a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, so 30 years away. As we mentioned in the introduction, the basic argument (conveyed to us as well by Extinction Rebellion activists when we spoke to them outside the World Aviation Festival this year) was pretty straightforward and simple - this is an emergency, and so emergency measures need to be taken. A few environmentalists will endorse, with qualifications, what some airlines are trying to do. As we said in the piece on carbon offsetting, easyJet got a cautious thumbs up from Jonathon Porritt in its recent announcement that it would carbon offset all flights. In the middle however the most popular demand is one of a frequent flier tax, or for frequent flyer schemes to be banned altogether. To activists, they incentivise environmentally irresponsible behaviour to the point where some frequent flyers take mileage flights purely to preserve their status.
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Airline Marketing Monthly | December 2019
find a spectrum of suggested actions when
