Duncan McCourt, chief executive of Sustainable Aviation, an umbrella group for UK airlines, airports, manufacturers and others in the business, is optimistic that removing carbon from flying won’t add much more than a few pounds to the cost of an airline ticket.
“We think we can do it while enabling people to continue to fly and continue to get that benefit of flying, such as connecting people, such as being able to go on holiday,” he says.
But the Jet Zero plan says nothing directly about the knock-on cost to passengers. Instead, it refers to “demand management”.
Sir Dieter Helm has his own take on what Jet Zero means for holidaymakers and fully believes that it will lead to higher costs. As for the likelihood of the government hitting its Jet Zero target on time, he is unconvinced of this too, but he also suggests that this may not be the point.
“It depends whether you think Jet Zero is… genuinely a target and they mean to achieve it. I’m really sceptical about the second.”
And now, the number of flights taken annually by people in the UK is projected to rise even further, translating into an additional 150 million more flights a year. So the scale of the government’s challenge, which was large enough when it began, is only set to grow.