Ground private jets now to protect family holidays this summer

The International Energy Agency warned that Europe has just six weeks of jet fuel left - and that was three weeks ago. This week, we learned that 13,000 flights would be grounded in May alone, potentially affecting two million passengers. How many family holidays will be cancelled over the summer unless the government takes action to protect holidays?

The fairest way to protect the highest number of ordinary holidaymakers looking forward to their annual getaway is to divert fuel from some of the most unnecessary and wasteful flights - luxury travel by private jet. These planes use up to 30 times more fuel than a seat on an ordinary commercial flight, because they use entire, almost empty planes to transport just a handful of ultra-wealthy occupants.

The private jet industry wants us to believe that these are business flights, but we’re not falling for that. A huge chunk of private jet flights are to ski slopes in the winter and beaches in the summer. Aviation (and its expansion) is frequently framed as essential to our economy, but the reality is that growth in business flights flatlined decades ago, and aviation expansion in recent decades has been gobbled up by the wealthiest few. This small group is taking an increasing number of holidays overseas, resulting in billions of pounds leaving the UK as tourism spend.

By contrast, most people in the UK rarely fly. Around half of us don’t get on a plane at all in any given year. That means a large proportion of the people subjected to the chaos of cancellations are hard-working families, excited to take their only trip of the year.

We now face a deeply unfair situation in which the volatility of the international oil market is leaving ordinary people with only chaos and disruption to look forward to this summer, while the wealthiest few continue to jet off on the most polluting flights.

So, why hasn’t the government done anything to tackle this? They should start right now by banning private jets while this crisis continues, to protect annual summer holidays for as many people as possible. And even if this crisis ends, we shouldn’t go back to business as usual, with ultra-frequent flyers and private jet users taking up an unfair share of the flights.

Instead, we should put in place sensible taxes to reduce the most wasteful and polluting flights taken by the wealthiest few, and also look at how to make sure more people can travel internationally by rail. Making better use of our vital international rail link would protect ordinary people from these oil shocks and help our climate.

Right now, the government has to choose: will they allow private jets to keep zooming around as the fuel crisis worsens, or will they save summer for the rest of us?

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Alethea Warrington is Head of Aviation at climate charity Possible.

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