The UK government has a legal obligation to reach net zero by 2050. The previous government laid out plans to achieve this goal in its five-year Jet Zero strategy, which airlines contributed to. 

However, a new documentary – called Cheap Flights: What They Really Mean for You – which aired on Thursday (28 October), criticised airlines for not factoring other greenhouse gases from exhaust emissions into climate change calculations. It said CO2 only accounted for about half of the warming emissions.

Duncan McCourt, chief executive of industry-funded body Sustainable Aviation, speaking on the documentary, argued that fares will increase "by a few pounds", but added that much of the cost will be passed on to the consumer. 

“The true impact of flying could well be double that set out in the Jet Zero policy,” the programme said.

Professor Sir Dieter Helm of Oxford University said: “The truth is aviation is too cheap because you’re not paying for the pollution, you’re not paying for the surface infrastructure, not paying for all the pollution taking place in the airport.

“Polluters have to pay and the polluter is the passenger.”

Helm disputed claims about sustainable aviation fuels (SAF): “I think it’s very hard to think there’s such a thing.”

He called for a “reality check”, arguing there would not be enough SAF to go round. “Where is the source of the biofuels going forward?” he asked.

The programme also examined offset schemes. It said one broadleaf tree absorbed a tonne of CO2 – equal to one return flight to Tenerife per passenger – but took 100 years or more to do so.

“To absorb that in a single year would need at least 100 trees. The Jet Zero plan is that by 2050 we will need to offset 19 million tonnes a year. To absorb that we would need 1.9 billion additional trees – an area almost the size of Wales,” the programme said.

Cait Hewitt, Aviation Environment Federation policy officer, said offset schemes could have created an increase in flying “by creating a false impression that emissions… were somehow being cancelled out by buying an offset”.

The programme concluded: “There is no guarantee we will get anywhere near net zero by 2050... there is a real possibility the cost will go up and we will all have to fly less frequently.”