Campaign to reduce air travel takes off
TRAVELLERS ARE BEING URGED TO QUIT PLANES IN FAVOUR OF TRAINS FOR 2020 AS SWEDEN’S ‘ FLIGHT SHAME’ MOVEMENT TOUCHES DOWN IN THE UK
My last flight was in 2007 and I have no sense of loss. This is an emergency – climate and ecological – giving up flying is one way that an individual can cut their carbon footprint dramatically.”
Sue Hampton, an author, is one of a growing number of people to quit flying in order to help save the planet. Though she abstained from planes years ago, she reaffirmed her commitment recently by signing up to the Flight Free UK campaign, which aims to get 100,000 people to give up flying next year.
It follows a similar movement in Sweden called flygskam, or ‘flight shame’, which stigmatised flying through social media. A more constructive sister campaign, tagskryt (‘train brag’), encourages people to feel virtuous about taking the train instead of hopping on a plane. Both campaigns appear to be contributing to a sizeable shift in travel habits in Sweden.
According to the country’s rail and airport authorities, the number of travellers passing through Sweden’s ten busiest airports fell by 4% in the first half of 2019, while train journeys were up 10% in the same period.
Flight Free UK, which has over 3,000 signatories so far, is also campaigning for a tobacco-style ban on all airline advertising and wants the government to start taxing aviation fuel, which is currently exempt from duties.
“Fuel for coach travel and car use is taxed, but kerosene is not,” said Anna Hughes, lead campaigner at Flight Free UK. “The playing field is not level.”
The campaign to reduce air travel has some high-profile backers, too, including Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teen climate activist, who recently sailed to the US in order to avoid travelling by plane.