Support for taxes on flights keeps growing

It finally seems like we might just be getting through to people - maybe even the hard-working British families the aviation industry likes to blame for their plans to turn Britain into Airstrip One. According to the 25th British Social Attitudes Report, 70% of Brits now agree "that air travel has a serious effect on climate change." This may not strike readers of our website as an especially mind-blowing revelation - but it's worth remembering that only 83% of Brits currently agree that bears shit in the woods.

Of perhaps greater significance is the news that "The proportion who agree that people should be able to travel by plane 'as much as they like' is 63%, down from 78% in 2003. When asked the same question but with the extra words 'even if it harms the environment', agreement falls from 63% to 19%."

19%? 19 freaking percent? The aviation industry constantly retreats behind the insatiable demand of 'the public' for more, and cheaper flights as justification for their tax-free status, exemption from emissions targets, and plans to expand 24 airports across Britain. But the new research shows that "one half (49%) of the public now agree that airfares should reflect environmental damage, up from 36% in 2004" and - crucially - "only 28% disagree with this view."

As the report's authors note, "At the moment, many people clearly feel ambivalent. Most want to fly and probably would rather not pay much more. Yet we have found only low levels of opposition to the prospect of a steep rise in air fares in order to reflect the environmental damage caused by air travel. This suggests that higher air fares may well not be widely resisted by the public."

We're not quite standing under a 'mission accomplished' banner and popping open the bubbly in the PS boardroom just yet. But it is starting to look like the British people aren't quite as suicidal as the captains of industry and their mates in the DfT like to make out.