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Private jet passenger tax necessary to limit London City Airport’s extra emissions

Labour’s private jet passenger tax is a necessary step to stop aviation jeopardising net-zero ambitions, climate change groups have said

Labour’s first budget on October 30th announced a 50% increase on air passenger duty for private jets, the largest tax hike in the Chancellor’s announcement.

Johann Beckford, senior policy advisor and aviation expert at Green Alliance, said: “It is so important to start taxing private jets properly.

“Action on aviation has to start with private jets, if you don’t do that you risk undermining policy for decarbonisation.

“You will have real public opposition when you don’t focus on the broader shoulders first of Richard Branson, Taylor Swift etc.”

This follows a confirmed £480m expansion of London City Airport announced in August this year, a move that Green Alliance called incredibly disappointing. 

A private jet leaves London every eight minutes, data from the Civil Aviation Authority revealed.

Meanwhile, private jet flying hours from London City Airport are up by 1,112.6% in the last 3 years, data from WingX shows. 

London City Airport runway, image credit: Henry Ren, Unsplash

The expansion is set to increase the passenger numbers from 6.5m to 9.5m annually

London City Airport said this expansion seeks to authorise cleaner aircraft, with a proposed £3.8m community fund to be distributed to the East London and Newham community over the next ten years. 

However, for Green Alliance this is not enough, which is why this passenger air duty increase is welcomed.

Beckford added: “The reason it is problematic is because it could give a green light to other airports that the government is willing to push forward with other airport expansions.

“Collectively, as a country we are going to be accelerating the number of flights and aviation will have an even more oversized impact on the climate.”

The airport’s expansion and subsequent contradictory private jet passenger tax leaves the future of private aviation up in the air.

London City Airport private jet centre has been reached for comment.

Image credit: James Petts @Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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