External costs

One reason why there is such fast growth is that air travel is under-priced. It does not it recompense society for the huge environmental impacts. (It is also larely exempt from non-environmental taxes.) This means that air travel competes unfairly with other sectors of the economy for resources and for the disposable income of travellers.

Aviation imposes large costs on society and these costs are not currently borne by the industry or its customers. These costs are termed ‘external costs’. Estimates suggest that the external cost of aviation in the UK may be £3 to 4 billion pa and could be much higher.