Air passengers face £50 green tax

Air passengers will have to pay up to £50 extra to fly under a new European plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The charge may be imposed on all airlines within two years in an attempt to encourage them to run more efficient aircraft and discourage people from flying.

The Brussels initiative will add an extra £50 to the cost of flying from London to California; £35 to flights to New York and between £5 and £10 to flights within Europe.

Holidaymakers and budget airline passengers will be hardest hit by the proposed levy denounced by the aviation industry as "a tax on holidays".

Virgin Atlantic said it would have no choice but to pass on the charge to customers. Air travel is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions with the average jet pumping out just under one tonne of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for each passenger it carries from London to New York.

Experts calculate that aviation causes 3.5 per cent of man-made global warming and predict this will rise to 15 per cent by 2050. Britain is one of several EU countries that support a charge.

In a Green paper, The Future of Aviation, the Government suggests tax on kerosene would "place environmental costs on the polluter". Until now airlines have escaped paying a tax on fuel consumption or emissions, arguing they would fly to another country with no tax and refuel there.

Now the European Commission is to recommend a European-wide charge. Another option would be a scheme in which the worst polluting airlines would be charged to reward greener ones. Ron Welt, coauthor of a report that will go before the commission this month, says legislation could be introduced in 18 months.

Mr Welt, of the Dutch consultants CE Delft, said: "Setting the level will be a political choice but compared with a few years ago the airlines are more aware of their environmental problems and they accept aviation is contributing to climate change."

The airlines argue that the £1 billion passengers pay each year in departure tax is roughly equal to the environmental damage from flights. A spokesman for lobby group Greener by Design, which opposed fuel charges, said: "This is nothing but a holiday tax. Poor people and those who pay fares out of their own pocket would suffer most."