Everyone on Board: Bringing the public into the aviation debate

Aviation is a highly polarised issue, with political debate often dominated by those who see all flying as wrong and those who dismiss climate change altogether.

However, this conceals a more measured debate between those who think the aviation industry’s priority should be meeting increased demand and those who think it should be drastically reducing emissions. But for any policy to be credible, it must also have the support of the British public. Few approaches proposed by either environmental groups or business groups currently enjoy strong public support.

This report is based on original qualitative research which seeks to learn more about public attitudes to some of the big questions in this debate. How does the British public reconcile climate change and the benefits brought by aviation to the UK economy? How does the public feel about airport capacity? What policies are attractive to the public and why? And, crucially, to what extent are people willing to adjust their flying habits to limit their environmental impact?

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