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Comment by lalos | Hacker News Reader

Pipe dream but it would be interesting to devise some increasing tax based on the number of flights you've done per year. They already ask for ID when you buy flights so it would be easily track-able. First flight 10%, second 20%, third 30%, etc. Just as a thought exercise but I'm aware of the friction this sort of idea would get. Related gif: https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/1013088775973556224

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I was going to complain about people who live abroad (as I do), and them being penalised for returning to see their family, but then I realised that it's actually the inverse in Sweden.

You get a tax break if you travel to visit your home country, I guess it's something they want to promote.

I'm from Mallorca, a Spanish island, and residents get discounts on flights to the mainland.

Disincentivizing air travel could have a big impact on climate change as well. I don't understand why those who want to do something about climate change still fly around the country/world like its nothing. A single plane ride from NYC to LA emits about 20% of the greenhouse gases your vehicle does each YEAR. 5 trips in one year and you've essentially been running a second car for that year. [0]

If you care about climate change and you still fly I can't take you seriously.

[0]: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/climate/airplane-pollutio...

Are there reasonable alternatives? I.e. ones that don't take a week to get there and have a similar price?

> A single plane ride from NYC to LA emits about 20% of the greenhouse gases your vehicle does each YEAR.

I can't immediately tell from the source NYT cites, but is that 20% of one person's vehicle emission, or 20% of the aggregate vehicle emission of all passengers?

If it's the former, that might not be a great way to frame the problem since cross-country flights typically have hundreds of passengers.

It's 20% of one person. One single flight spews many car-years worth of greenhouse gases.

You can tack this tax to jet owners too, easily charged by airports that receive them and also based on amount used. Trying to make it as equal as possible and de-incentivize excessive flights.

This is already done for private jet owners. (A lot more fees too actually.) They just don't call those fees a "travel tax". But yeah, the more you use your jet, the more of these fees you are paying. (But like everything, there's probably some level at which they will give you a break on the fees if you are rich enough and always going to the same places a lot?)

Having a private jet isn't cheap, and of course using any airport will incur some fees, but I don't think it's that much, since the last thing an airport wants to do is turn away the customers that keep it open.

The thing with private jets is that they usually are not based in, or fly from, large international airports. Usually, they are hangared at small airports. Those airports simply wouldn't exist without those private jets, other private planes, and helicopters.

Interesting perspective. There are more of the middle/working classes who want to travel, but the upper classes travel more per capita. Maybe the problem isn't just us, the middle and working classes who want to see the world a little. Maybe it's also you, the privileged upper classes, who want to travel far more than the average...

A simpler solution would be to tax the wealthy at a higher rate, reducing their ability to travel as much.

I really doubt that would work out. Especially depending what you mean by "wealthy". There is probably a sweet spot in the income bracket where that would do something, but those people would not be considered "wealthy" by most definitions.

I know people who fall into the 20% tax bracket, living in London, who are still able to do a return flight to somewhere in Europe once a month.

How do you prevent people who otherwise live frugally from flying frequently?

Traveling these days is incredibly cheap. People can save up enough to travel around SE Asia by working restaurant or retail jobs if they put their minds to it.

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