I’ve lived in north western Europe my entire life, and enjoy travelling by train/ferry and explore neighbouring countries - there is more than enough to see for a life time. It is astonishing to me how many people find it neccessary to fly to the other side of the globe to feel like they are on vacation (or more likely.. for vanity.)
Maybe, because I was born and lived here in SouthEast Asia. Almost no one in my circle or news outlet here talk about avoiding travelling by air. Every national holiday here, you can expect to see people crowded at the airport.
I do understand that traveling by air has higher cabon emission, but I think the experiece and perspective you gain from travelling make you understand the world better.
I do hope we can come up with sustainable alternative of air traveling soon.
The taxation level should be somewhat dynamic and simply rise or fall to discourage flying as much as is needed to remain below a predetermined yearly ceiling of Revenue Passenger Miles (RPM).
On the bright side: in recent years train travel in Europe has been getting better, with a renewed interest in sleeper trains. I just hope this whole Covid-mess doesn't stop these developments completely.
These marketplace schemes never work in reality. except for creating a bunch of marketplace middleman saas that makes money.
First, with a fixed quota, the value of a credit is bid up by people wanting to fly, not dissimilar to the Norwegian butter crisis where a stick of butter cost upward of €40.
Second, with a credit transfer system, people selling their credits receive a "negative" tax, while people buying credits pay a positive tax.
This system ensures everyone still has access to a basic level of air travel at today's prices, but is also super-linearly incentivize to travel less.
A linear (fixed) tax on travel will just price out the lowest class, and a linear tax means nothing to those on top of a power-law wealth distribution.