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It was born in Sweden, but quickly spread throughout Europe – and beyond. Flygskam, or the shame of flying by plane. The term initially described an environmental motivation to reduce air travel and opt for rail transportation. It became part of a broader movement seeking to reduce airplane flights.
One round-trip flight a year without a surcharge, and a special tax for each additional one – that’s the idea of the Stay Grounded network of environmental organizations. As Aviation Market wrote, the third flight would be subject to a €50 tribute, and the sixth flight of the year – would incur a €500 surcharge. Passengers on transcontinental flights and those who choose business and first class would have to pay even more.
“Too easy a target”. Aviation under fire from environmentalists
This is another recent idea to discourage air transportation. – Aviation is too easy a target to blame, Luc Tytgat, former executive director of EASA, formerly in leadership positions at Eurocontrol and the European Commission, told us.
Air transportation accounts for about 3 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. That’s not much compared to road transport or industry. However, environmentalists point out that at the level of individual activities, it is one of the most carbon-intensive. On a per-person basis, a flight from Europe to New York is about 2-3 tons of carbon dioxide.
Aviation, however, is taking a number of steps to minimize its environmental impact while not limiting its benefits to the economy, tourism and making the world a smaller place. The International Air Transport Association IATA, which brings together more than 300 airlines from around the world, adopted a resolution in 2021 to achieve zero-carbon by 2050.
NetZero. How to reduce CO2 emissions in aviation?
The main tool for reaching this goal is to be sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Starting as early as 2025, the EU is entering a requirement to use 2 percent SAF in the blend with traditional aviation fuel JET-A1.
In second place were new technologies such as hydrogen and electric propulsion. Also included were infrastructure upgrades and greater operational efficiency (including air traffic control), or finally offsetting and carbon capture.
Also important is the replacement of the fleet with newer aircraft that are more economical in terms of aviation fuel consumption, emit less exhaust and CO2, and are quieter.
According to IATA, thanks to all these measures, CO2 emissions are expected to drop to zero, while air traffic is expected to grow to 10 billion travelers in 2050.
Flygskam: Swedes take a step back
Although it was in Sweden that flygskam was born, in September the government in Stockholm announced that it would withdraw the flight tax introduced in 2018. Its amount for domestic and intra-EU flights is 76 kroner, or about PLN 30 per passenger. The levy is not in the draft budget for 2025, and is to be abolished as of July. It is to be response to a rise in airfares and a drop in connectivity after the tax was introduced.
Swedavia, the state-owned operator of Sweden’s largest airports, has announced that the country’s air traffic is still at pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels in 2024.
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