U.K. Group Calls For BizAv Fuel Tax

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A British environmental group says business aircraft should pay a fuel tax currently charged airline passengers. The Air Passenger Duty is part of every airline ticket but the Campaign for Better Transport says business aviation passengers don’t pay it even though they have a much larger environmental footprint than the average airline passenger. Although bizav is a soft target for the environmental movement, pronouncements such as this might carry a bit more weight as the U.K. heads to the polls May 6.

In the organization’s aviation blog, the writers call on the government to close the “loophole” and note that 67,000 fuel tax-free business aviation flights occurred last year. EasyJet, Britain’s largest budget carrier, is jumping into the fray and commissioned a study last year, that, to no one’s surprise, found the majority of its passengers think private operations should be subject to the tax. The Campaign for Better Transport says the tax should be imposed for environmental reasons, claiming that business aircraft passengers create as much as 30 times the pollution, per capita, as airline pax. “Charging fuel duty on these ultra-polluting aircraft wouldn’t raise enormous sums of money, but it would make sure that all flights were held accountable for the damage they cause to the environment,” the group says.

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