What would persuade frequent fliers to fly less?

[hippospot]

I read this very article and liked the suggestion of having to pay more for each subsequent flight you take in a year. Maybe a family who take one holiday a year won't be penalised but the people who fly multiple times a year would face increased penalties the more they fly. Currently 5% of the population is taking 33% of the flights!

I worry so much about climate change but people around me seem to not be making any adjustments to their carbon-heavy lifestyles. What could be the solution in your view?

I don't really want to debate whether flying is the biggest cause of climate change. It isn't. But it's one of the biggest discretionary changes we can make to our impact on the climate as individuals.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/03/heathrow-third-runway-climate-warnings-economic-reality?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Because rail travel takes ages and unless you see the travel day as part of your holiday or enjoy rail travel I do prefer a flight.

We often take very early morning flights, no way, even with living in SE London, could I manage to get the Eurostar to get me the same time of arrival.
I hate travelling with luggage, I do it often when I visit my mum with luggage for 4-5 days but for 2 weeks - there is just no space on trains. And I don't want to backpack/wash clothes/live on a capsule wardrobe.

I also love exploring the world, we are off to Vietnam next year, we look into Kazakhstan and New Zealand.
This year Italy - the journey would have taken 2 days at least constant travel.

I once looked up Vienna, trip via my mum, 8 hour train with 3 changes. The ticket was extraordinary as it would have meant a total flexible on as the cheaper ones are linked to a specific train and if you miss your connection - your problem.

Even in the UK - DD studies in Lincoln, she travels by train with a railcard. DH and I will visit her in December and driving is absolutely a lot cheaper.
I want a railcard just for one person but that doesn't exist for anyone under 65 for the whole of the UK.

Taxing frequent flyers may raise taxation in the short term, but wouldn't have any significant environmental benefit in the long term, as the majority "need" to fly and will pay the additional cost.

Reducing population growth would have a far greater impact on climate change, and will have to be addressed eventually.

Ironically the UK is "doing it's bit" as we now have a negative net birthrate.

I worry so much about climate change but people around me seem to not be making any adjustments to their carbon-heavy lifestyles... I don't really want to debate whether flying is the biggest cause of climate change. It isn't. But it's one of the biggest discretionary changes we can make to our impact on the climate as individuals.

There are a LOT of other discretionary changes that the general public are NOT making. When it becomes the norm to telecommute 100%, recycle 100%, eat local and low on the food chain, take < 3 minute showers, keep tech like mobiles and laptops for 10+ years before replacing even if it's slightly inconvenient, habitually switch off and unplug anything not in current use, walk or bike whenever possible, and eschew owning or using a private vehicle then I think never or very rarely flying will seem much more like a necessary and fair next step.

The rich have taken steps, bought ranches, in areas of the world they have calculated will be least affected by climate change, or conflict arising from climate change effects.

But people won’t make the changes required until made to and then, it might be already, but by then it will be far too late.

People don’t connect the dots over what they need and how close most things are to a steady supply chain and a predictable climate growing season.

No one really cares, we all justify our choices.

Yes, you do. Why aren’t you lobbying for change instead of snarling at people who want to go on holiday once a year? You’re targeting the wrong people. Put your efforts into creating real change. Alternative methods of travel, better travel infrastructures or how about alternative fuel?

Boycotting flights won’t change anything. Actually, yes it will… it will mean that I don’t get to see much of my family and friends who don’t live in the UK. I’m not prepared to give that up. I am prepared to get behind real change. Things that people said would never happen. Smoking ban in public places, recycling every week… these are things that people will and do get on board with. Make flying more climate friendly and we’ll all literally get on board, but don’t tell us not to do it with no alternative.

Now that would be brilliant @JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn
Normally I’m not of the mind to even continue with HS2 as you can already do Birmingham - London in less than 1hr 20 mins- but I love the idea of it linking directly to Eurostar, maybe even a sleeper?

@reluctantbrit
It probably doesn’t make any difference to you, but senior rail card is 60, not 65.

I haven't flown very much in the past 9 years because my eldest is 8 years old, and when we had kids we decided to stick to easier holidays by rail to Europe or the UK, until the dcs were older. It just seemed like too much hassle to deal with long waits at the airport and transfers compared to a 20 min journey to the Eurostar terminal. So I guess having young children probably puts off quite a lot of people off flying, just because of the hassle involved. My dcs are old enough now that it's quite comfortable to fly with them, and we've run out of easy Eurostar destinations so we'll probably fly more in the next few years. We're happy to pay a bit more for the convenience of rail than going for a cheap flight and the hassle of an airport. But the more interesting, warmer places in Europe aren't practical to travel by train, conpared to a short flight, plus we'd like to explore a bit more of the world beyond Europe.

I think a higher price for each holiday wouldn't necessarily stop us, because it's important for us that our dcs broaden their horizons a bit, and they only have a few more years before they'll stop wanting to go on family holidays. But we still wouldn't take loads of flights every year because we're limited to school holidays and annual leave, and some of those are earmarked for visiting family and sports activities.

Not read the article but if the UK wasn’t so depressing, people wouldn’t need to fly off to escape. People also have family across the world, it’s a globalised planet so the transport systems need to improve, the solution is not to tax people. Train fares are outrageous in the UK.

If the government wants to support the planet, why lift the child benefit cap? Why not include child maintenance when calculating how much UC a person gets? Put a stop to all
these fly by night men having batches of kids and not paying for them? That will reduce the population numbers.

Will the MP’s be subject to their own rules? Or does government ‘business’ make them exempt?

It’s just another rinse on the hardworking people who want to travel in their leisure time.

Please explain why I should be lobbying anyone? People won’t change their behaviours so why should it be up to me to put the effort in to try to make those behaviours slightly less destructive long term?

It is the responsibility of those you with any children / young people in your lives to do your bit to be able to look them in the eyes and explain that you do care about their future but the big corporations are doing bad things environmentally so you won’t forego your holidays.

I do my bit by recycling, not having children, not driving, not flying and keeping any kind of travel to essential only (ie attending other offices within my company, all of which are a relatively short train journey away and which happens once a month max) and no leisure travel.

And I have no skin in the game - when I’m dead then I am not leaving anyone behind who will have to deal with the environmental impact

Ironically the UK is "doing it's bit" as we now have a negative net birthrate.

Yet millions of flats and houses are being built which is hardly good for the environment. When will the negative birth rate mean the population actually decreases?

The world population isn’t decreasing unfortunately.

You clearly feel very strongly about people flying, so why not put that energy into lobbying for change? Restricting your life isn’t doing anything but restricting your life. You’re not making any impact, but lobbying would make an impact. It’s absolutely your choice not to. The same way that it’s my choice not to restrict my lifestyle.

But having said that, people will change their behaviours when there’s a reasonable alternative. For example, more people will buy electric cars when there’s better infrastructure in place. Quite rightly, people aren’t banned from driving because they don’t have an electric car. To get more people on board with it, the infrastructure has to be improved. And that’s what’s happening.

As far as I’m concerned it’s the same with flying. Planes will be designed with lower emissions at some point, but I’m not going to stop flying until it gets sorted. History is full of examples of things that were bonkers at the time. It will get sorted.

In the meantime, I do my bit and I’ll happily look anyone in the eye and say I’m comfortable with my choices.

Who said my life was restricted? That is your opinion and shows a slight lack of imagination in my opinion.

I am not making a negative impact on anything including the environment by my actions. Why is it up to me to enable other people to travel with less impact when they can’t be arsed to do anything about it themselves?

The attitude of ‘someone else will do it’ is so very typical.

Hopefully I will be long gone by the time everything goes tits up and I’m not leaving any descendants to deal with it

While the UK now has a "negative net birthrate", our population growth is now driven purely from immigration so unlikely to fall in the near future without significant changes in government policy.

Thanks for all your comments. Clearly my idea wasn't realistic. I am still really curious about what influences collective behaviour changes, however. I know charging 5p for carrier bags reduced their use by 85%, for example. I will continue to pay attention to my own carbon footprint and I'm already involved with campaigning on green issues.

I think a lot more can be done but nothing is pushed by previous governments.

deposits on plastic bottles and can - the norm in Germany and other countries and delays and delays here in the UK.
we have a water carbonated since 7 years to avoid the mountain of bottles at home.

better plastic recycling like soft plastic and blister packs - again in Germany I don’t have to bring everything to a collection point but put it in the main recycling at home

extra fee for take away container packaging- I pay €0.50 for a paper tray to get 3 coffee cups

We have coffee cups in the car, I hardly ever buy a disposable if I take my coffee to go. There is hardly any incentive anymore to bring your own cup.

Why are there hardly any grants or cheap loans for solar panels?

deposits on plastic bottles and can - the norm in Germany and other countries and delays and delays here in the UK.
we have a water carbonated since 7 years to avoid the mountain of bottles at home.

We are constantly being told about the damage of plastic - and I entirely agree - but the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. Everywhere one goes there are mountains of them. Trains, planes, shops, cafes, hotel rooms, you name it.
Maybe if there was a way of filling up people’s water bottles/flasks in these places then that would reduce throw away plastic.

The problem is that all those businesses make a lot of profit from selling us single use plastic filled with water, without it, the viability of their business is threatened.

One alternative I really liked was an apartment complex in Tenerife that had a vending machine where you could refill your own water bottles with chilled filtered water for a trivial sum of 10/20 C a time. But that sort of infrastructure needs investment.

One of my bugbears is promotional leaflets and mailshots. We get a huge amount through our door and from online retailers where a single purchase can lead to years of unwanted catalogues, all of which goes straight in the recycling. Paper is a hugely resource intensive industry, even when it's recycled, as it needs massive factories that consume a high amount of energy, water and chemicals.

The PET plastic bottle & can deposit return scheme is scheduled to start in autumn 2027.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-clean-up-communities-with-deposit-return-scheme-for-plastic-bottles-and-cans

https://exchangeforchange.co.uk/

It's about 40 years behind some European countries, but at least it's finally happening. I really look forward to the cleaner streets we'll have.

We get a huge amount through our door and from online retailers where a single purchase can lead to years of unwanted catalogues, all of which goes straight in the recycling.

So do we - it’s very annoying. However, sometimes on the catalogue there is an email address where you can cancel the catalogues.

Absolutely nothing! There’s going to be over 42,000 new aircraft deliveries over the next 20 years. The aircraft will become more efficient but us not flying wont make any difference. Aviation is a tiny contributor of global emissions.

It's one of those ideas which looks ideal on the surface but when you start to delve deeper the problems soon stack up. You mention, for example, that this wouldn't apply to people who have family abroad but how will this be policed? My mother retired abroad to a country which is a massive tourist hotspot, particularly for UK tourists. The whole place is just resorts. On paper it looks like I have a lovely time in the sun several times per year. The reality is that I'm dealing with my mother's failing health issues, back and forward to hospital appointments and don't get a sniff of a cocktail or a sun lounger. How would I be classified?

I think all people should be entitled to one flight out and one back for non business
Once you have had that no more allowed
I laugh when I talk to people in their 20s-30s who boast about how many places they have visited
When they get most see nothing of the history or culture but lie on a beach or go to bars and restaurants
And put endless Photos on social media that no one else has the slightest interest in looking at

@zoeslim
I think all people should be entitled to one flight out and one back for non business
Once you have had that no more allowed.

Presumably you mean just in UK as how would you force other countries to do this?
Even if this was made law, how would you stop people from taking a ferry to France or Ireland or Holland and flying on from there?
If there was no restriction on business flights then people would find ways of making out they had business to attend to.
What if they had had their one return flight and a family member died abroad? Would they not be allowed to go to the funeral?