ZBMan, your point is well-made and quite correct. A blanket £40 charge is a nonsense that gets almost nowhere towards the polluter-pays principle. The point that a fully occupied Q400 flying from London to Manchester would pay the same tax as a near-empty L1011 flying from Aberdeen to Porto is a nonsense.
So, what would be a more sensible and logical, and acceptable, alternative? How should this be introduced - 5 year lead in time to allow airlines time to adjust? How should the proceeds be spent - research into better technologies; subsidy of less polluting technologies; carbon offsetting; coastal defences; third world debt alleviation?
Between us surely we can actually come up with something that is sane and fair, but achieves the polluter pays principles?
Dr Dave