UK business people believe air fares should rise to help combat climate change, a new survey by bmi and the Institute of Directors (IoD) has found.
The report, 'High Fliers: business leaders' view on air travel', found that 50% of the 500 IoD members questioned said that air fares should go up so that "aviation paid its full environmental costs."
47% said the rise should be up to 10% with 16% saying it should be more than that. But 33% said there should be no rise at all.
86% of the directors said airlines with a modern fuel efficient fleet were the “more credible eco offering” compared to carbon offsetting and pre-paid carbon neutral flights.
The respondents were generally unconvinced by carbon offsetting schemes with 61% saying they would not pay for such a service.
A majority of the directors (65%) were either "not very likely" or "not at all likely" to cut their air travel voluntarily to help the environment.
But they seemed to be in favour of more aviation taxes. 33% were favoured an increase in Air Passenger Duty, 37% thought there should be a tax on fuel and 33% supported the EU's planned emissions trading scheme.
Miles Templeman, director general of the IoD, said he was "slightly surprised by the degree of willingness to pay 6.5% (the average rise advocated in air fares).
"It was not what I expected but I think that there is agreement across the country that we have to take it (climate change) seriously and that there are likely to be costs."
But Mr Templeman said the costs should be even distributed not just across other industries but globally as well.
Other major findings in the survey were that 70% of business people supported airport expansion in the UK and that 50% predict a strong growth in business travel.
On the second issue, 52% said their business air travel had increased in the past three years with only 12% saying it had declined.
53% said they expected it to grow over the next three years with only 9% expecting it to fall.
The regions to where they expected to fly more were the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
* The IoD conducted the survey, sponsored by bmi, through telephone interviews with 500 of its members last December.
* see the latest jobs on BTE's recruitment site www.businesstraveljobs.com