UK: Frequent flyers could face extra tax under plans to cut emissions

Flying will have to become more expensive, especially for frequent flyers, to avoid climate chaos and keep the UK within its carbon targets, the govt has been warned, while going ahead with a new runway at Heathrow would all but rule out airport expansion in the rest of the country. Ministers are likely to have to choose among options including hikes to air passenger duty, new levies on frequent flyers and changes to air taxation relative to rail and road in order to limit burgeoning demand for cheap flights in the next few years. Aviation is likely to become the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK by 2050, warned the Committee on Climate Change, the govt’s statutory adviser, even though technological advances will reduce aircraft emissions. <br/>