Reforming the UK's approach to private jet taxation
This research paper makes clear how the UK government could tax private jets fairly and what our proposed new tax would mean for our climate targets and for the public purse.
Key points:
Private Jets are a bigger problem than you might have thought.
Private jets are the most polluting form of travel, emitting far more harmful greenhouse gases per passenger than scheduled flights. For instance, a London to New York private jet passenger emits 27 times more CO₂e than a passenger flying economy.
Despite their climate impact, there are now around 100,000 private jet departures from the UK each year - clocking up the equivalent annual greenhouse gas emissions of Southampton.
2. The way that air travel is taxed currently is not fit for purpose.
Unlike the fuel used to power cars, trains, and coaches, most aviation fuel is still not taxed: the kerosene used by most private flights incurs zero fuel duty. And almost all flights pay no VAT (the exception being ‘experience’ or pleasure flights such as airship or hot air balloon rides).
Instead, the main way that air travel is taxed is through Air Passenger Duty (APD), which passengers pay as part of their ticket price. However, because around one-fifth of private jets fall below the 5.7-tonne weight threshold, any flights on those aircrafts are completely exempt from APD.
Even where APD is paid, it’s not enough. When calculating the tax paid as a proportion of the ticket price, it’s clear that the wealthy few who pollute the most are paying the least.
Looking at a journey from London to Paris, for example, the private passenger would pay less than 1% of their ticket as tax, whereas an economy passenger on a commercial flight is paying 54% as tax.
3. The UK public would support higher taxes for private jets
Ahead of this report, we commissioned polling to find out how a private jets tax would land with the British public and it’s good news for us:
75% of the UK public agree that private jets should pay at least the same as or more fuel duty than cars.
67% of the UK public agree that taxes on private jets should be increased to help fund public services.
Just 7% of the population think private jets should remain exempt from fuel duty.
4. Our solution could raise £2.7 billion for public investment.
The report proposes the introduction of two taxes to be paid by all private jet passengers - including those in small aircraft under 5.7 tonnes maximum takeoff weight. We believe both of these taxes would be affordable for private jet passengers already paying tens of thousands of pounds per flight:
A fair rate of APD. We recommend setting an APD for private jets at 30 times the current higher APD rate (meaning private passengers would pay 15-45% of the ticket price as tax). This would raise £1.2 billion a year from private passengers.
A fair fuel duty on kerosene used by private jets. If this fuel duty was set at £5.295 per litre (10 times the normal motor-fuel rate) this would raise up to £1.5 billion a year.
Together, these two tax policies could raise up to an additional £2.7bn in tax revenue annually from some of the most wasteful, most polluting flights taken by the wealthiest people in society.
Why this report matters:
In 2023 we published a report that shed light on the huge climate impact of the private jet industry and exposed the tax loopholes it was benefitting from.* Since then we’ve been campaigning for a tax on private jets, raising public awareness about the outrageous tax loopholes, mobilising people to take action, and lobbying the government to do something about it.
So far, our politicians have failed to act.
As such, we have published the [report title] report to get things moving. This report offers politicians a realistic solution which would be simple to implement, popular with the public, and result in significant benefits for the climate as well as the UK economy.
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