FAQs

Taking a flight is one of the most high-carbon activities we can do. Not everybody flies, but for those who do, flights will make up the most significant part of your carbon footprint. To put it in context, one return transatlantic flight generates more CO2 per passenger than eating meat for a year, or driving for a year. 

At at time where scientists tell us we must dramatically cut our carbon output, the aviation industry has plans to grow and expand. It is much easier to decarbonise other sectors such as heating and road transport than it will be to decarbonise aviation. Many flights are non-essential, so addressing how much we fly is a key part of facing the climate emergency.

Taking into consideration radiative forcing (high-altitude emissions) and non-CO2 effects (including water vapour contrails), aviation is responsible for about 3.5% of global climate change emissions.

But that's not because emissions from aviation are low, it's because, globally, very few people actually fly: less than 20% of the world’s population has ever been on a plane. Here in the UK, flights make up 7% of total emissions, and for the individuals who fly, those flights will likely make up over half of your carbon output for the year.

Interestingly, business flights only account for around 10% of the flights we take, and this hasn't changed much in the past few years. In our new virtual world and taking into account the impact of Covid-19, that number is likely to drop further.

The majority of flights (63%) are for holidays with a quarter of flights being to visit family and friends.

However, flying business class is approximately three times more carbon heavy than flying economy class, because business class seats take up more space, so each person accounts for a greater proportion of the plane’s emissions.

It’s easy to pin our hopes on techno-fixes for aviation, but we’ll be waiting for a long time for it to make an impact on emissions. The first electric or hydrogen-powered flights won’t be commercially available until at least 2035, and we need to be reducing emissions now. 

Electric aircraft would only be viable for short haul travel, and there is still an environmental impact in creating batteries and generating the electricity needed to charge them.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel or SAF often uses biofuels, a key driver of deforestation, and synthetic fuels use fossil fuels in the making process.

Being vegan is an excellent way of reducing your environmental impact, as a plant-based diet uses a fraction of the resources in terms of land use and water than a meat-based diet. 

In terms of carbon output, while being vegan can save around 1 tonne CO2 per year, you could use that up in a single flight.

System change is essential for making the large scale shifts that we desperately need to see. However, it's never one or the other. Our individual actions can influence the system, especially if lots of us do it together.

Governments and industry respond to public opinion and consumer behaviour, so if we demonstrate with our actions that we don’t want to fly, we can influence policy. As more people are choosing low-carbon travel, more ferry and rail routes are opening up across Europe, especially night trains. This shows we are having an impact!

Not at all! Travel is still possible (and in many cases, far more enjoyable) without flying. Our How to pages are packed full with inspiring stories of overland travel to destinations near and far.

There are plenty of hot holiday destinations accessible without flying, for example Spain, France, and Italy. It is also possible to get to more exotic destinations such as Morocco, Sardinia or Greece by a combination of train and boat. Not flying doesn't mean compromising on holiday destinations.

Having said that, the UK weather isn't always as bad as it seems, and UK holidays can be just as enjoyable as holidays abroad. Also bear in mind that unpredictable weather is made worse by an excess of greenhouse gases, so it's even more important to avoid flying to holiday destinations in order to preserve the weather for the generations to come.

It’s true that there are some eye-wateringly low prices out there. One of the reasons is that there’s no tax on aviation fuel, giving flights an unfair advantage over other forms of transport.

However, it's not always cheaper to fly, especially once you factor in transfers and luggage allowance etc. in addition to your air fare. Book in advance or save with Interrail to get the best fares.

Many airlines offer carbon offsetting as standard, and claim to therefore be ‘carbon neutral’. Unfortunately this is a bit too good to be true. A 2017 study showed that the majority of carbon offsetting schemes didn’t absorb the necessary carbon, and while there are some gold-standard schemes out there, most of them rely on future carbon absorption (i.e. through planting trees), whereas flying emits carbon now.

In addition, carbon offset schemes often mean that people feel that they have dealt with the impact of their flight, so they continue to fly. The best way to offset carbon emissions is not to produce them in the first place.

Flights work on a supply and demand basis. Nowhere has this been more keenly felt than during Covid-19 when people stopped flying, so planes stayed grounded. 

In the short term, your decision not to take a flight might not ground that particular plane, but in the longer term, lower demand leads to less supply. In Sweden, where the no-fly movement has been longest established, flight bookings fell by 9% in 2019 and rail bookings were up.

Not flying doesn’t mean not travelling (see our How to pages for tales of flight-free travels) so there is still plenty of opportunity to support international tourism without flying. However, we musn’t forget that many countries suffer from over-tourism (e.g. Bali and New Zealand) while our own tourism industry here in the UK is struggling. Supporting our local tourism industry is just as worthwhile.

In addition, the aviation sector is not the only industry that provides jobs. Expanded rail travel and engineering in renewable technology, for example, could provide equivalent employment opportunities. A 2022 study showed that moving to green transport would create more jobs than would be lost in the aviation sector.

Our main pledge is for people to stay completely flight free for a year. This is our tried-and-tested method of behaviour change, and it's a great way to reduce emissions and try the alternatives.

However, being completely flight free won't suit everybody, for example if you have work or family commitments. Offering a 'free choice' pledge means that you can choose something that suits your personal circumstances. This could be anything from not flying on holiday, to challenging yourself to a flight-free decade!

The 'free choice' pledge is designed so that you can pick whatever suits you. However, it still needs to be a challenge! We encourage you to choose something ambitious, given our fragile climate situation.

We strongly suggest that holiday flights are not included in any pledge, because of the severity of the climate crisis and our urgent need for climate justice.

You can change your pledge category by signing the pledge again with the same email address and name that you used the first time, but with your new category choice. The database will be updated to reflect your new category.

Asking people to stop flying forever is unlikely to appeal. But a flight free year can be a good way to break an established habit and enable people to start to see other alternatives. Having a time limit focuses the pledge as well as makes it an achievable aim. Committing to something in the short term increases the chances of longer-term behavioural change.

Flight Free UK is part of an international community of flight-free movements. Each country is different, with different social and political attitudes towards flying, and we take care to ensure our communications and messaging relate to the travel and political situation we have here in the UK. We aim to build a community of people who feel united about an issue, and we will have a more compelling voice with government if our signatories are all UK residents.

In practice, anyone can sign the pledge from anywhere in the world, but our focus is on the UK.

If an emergency situation arises, of course we understand that you would have to break your pledge.

It’s true that many other countries are far more polluting than the UK. But in terms of aviation, Brits take more flights than in any other nation in the world. It is also far easier to guide and influence other countries and regimes if you lead by example.

Yes. It is possible to register children and other close relatives who do not have their own email address by entering their name and the same email address that you used.

If you are interested in setting up your own campaign, please get in touch. It's hard work but can be very rewarding to inspire your fellow countrymen to be flight free!

Yes, please do! Your voice will give the campaign credence and will show others that there is a desire to take action on this issue. People are more willing to change their behaviour if others show they are doing the same, so your signature will encourage others to also take the pledge.

Fewer flights is absolutely the aim of the campaign, and just reducing your flying by one flight per year can substantially lower your carbon output. However, for this particular campaign we are asking people to abstain completely for one year (or make their own custom challenge).

This is partly because of the fragile state of our climate and the need to take immediate and meaningful action, but it’s mostly to demonstrate that there are legitimate alternatives to flying. This challenge requires real commitment and, for some, a significant lifestyle change, which is more likely to promote greener transport choices in the future.