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From fiction to reality: Could people ever embrace a ban on flying? (grist.org)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Those are good considerations. However I question this:

would dial back to business and first class only

In other words, you're suggesting that the number of flights would remain the same or near the same, and the seats would just be backfilled with higher-paying customers. That could be a problem, yeah.

My presumption/goal is that you'd need to raise prices enough to make the demand drop sharply at whatever price point be necessary to reduce the number of flights. Airlines would have to price in reduced demand on top of whatever fees are imposed to continue making it worth it to them. If the prices only result in an 80% carbon reduction, raise them some more.

Additionally, at a certain price point it may be that alternative fuels become viable - fees could take this into account to encourage them.

As for trans-ocean flights, these are probably unavoidable, yeah.

Perhaps it could be accomplished by simply limiting the number of permitted flights and allowing prices to float. I suppose that's taking up the same goal from the other end. Whatever happens, it seems inevitable that fewer people will be flying, and they'll be paying more. If we're to tackle the problem at all.