The FlyBe conundrum

One of January’s most polarising news stories has been the suggestion that the government may slash air passenger duty for domestic flights to help ailing FlyBe. The reason is clear: without this help, the airline could go under, leaving more than 2,000 employees out of work and cutting off parts of the country. However, cutting passenger duty would effectively decrease air fares at a time when rail fares have gone up 2.7 percent, pushing more customers onto planes when we should be exploring greener ways to travel.

At Mercator, we would advocate higher taxes on air passengers (we especially like ideas on cumulative taxes for frequent fliers), and then ear-marking this tax to retrain aviation employees and open up alternative transport (perhaps subsidising electric cars and linking rail networks). To moot slashing air travel duty at a time when we must cut frequent flying to save the environment doesn’t seem like a forward-thinking plan in the context of the climate emergency.

We await news on this story with crossed fingers!