It is true that air traffic has risen significantly over the past half-century, with cheap flights serving as a means of transportation to vacation locations being one of the reasons for this development. The major issue this entails is the growth of environmental concerns, leading some people to argue that states should introduce financial measures to tackle the problem. However, I strongly disagree with this sentiment and believe that there is a significantly better solution to this problem.
Heavy taxation of air traffic will inevitably lead to higher ticket prices. This, in turn, will negatively affect lower-income passengers who rely on cheap flights. For example, students who study far away from their families could find it difficult to pay for the holiday trips to see their parents.
Moreover, tourism industries in regions with underdeveloped railway networks may also suffer considerably from this measure, since they simply do not have any viable alternative to flying.
I believe that there are better solutions to the problem of air and noise pollution. Instead of heavily taxing travelling by air, governments could try to promote other, significantly more eco-friendly long-haul means of transportation, particularly trains. Trains are known to be one of the most environmentally friendly modes of travelling. Thus, investing into railway infrastructure and expanding the rail network to cover more destinations, as well as introducing high-speed trains and running public campaigns, would be an efficient way of incentivising people to opt for rail travel and, therefore, reducing the carbon footprint caused by planes.
To conclude, promotion of rail travel is a great alternative to an air taxation initiative, which has plenty of repercussions, such as financial burden on low-income passengers, and harm to local tourism industries.