Climate laws may end cheap flights, but private jets exempt

Policies affecting commercial airlines will reduce how often lower-income passengers can fly, but not the rich, writes Fausto Corvino

There were 500,000 private flights in Europe in 2022, and half of those journeys could have been undertaken by train.

The era of low-cost air travel in Europe may be over, thanks to recent EU environmental policies. This is good news for the climate. However, many low- and middle-income people who used to travel around the EU will no longer be able to do so, or at least much less often.

The same policies will have little or no impact on much-more-polluting private jets, which typically cover distances served by commercial airlines and trains.