Flying causes about 2% of global pollution. Just like everyone the airline industry claims it has a marginal effect on the CO2 concentration. The simple fact is that everyone has to cut emissions, emissions have to become strongly negative as soon as possible, so any emissions should be reduced and eliminated, that that may mean eliminating some activities in the short term. Here an example of how to go about it..
So who should fly? Who absolutely has to be able to move from A to B at the speed airtravel allows, between continents across the globe. Everyone will say “Me! Me! Me!” but of course that isn’t true.
Tourist : Nope. No need for airtravel to just be somewhere.
Businessmen : Nope, in 99% of cases nope. Make a video or phone call, do business on your own continent. The CEO of a company? Maybe to avoid eavesdropping on conversations. They should use specialist secure communication methods. They can afford clean energy powered transportation too.
Politicians : Maybe, because of privacy issues. Our political area is increasingly controlled, so no candidate can even enter without having been vetted for his/her ideology. Luckily there are not many.
Artists : Maybe, some, but they don’t make up the bulk of the travelers.
Surgeons : Also specialists, specially talented or experienced people that can’t work remotely you may want to let fly.
A good test of the rules is that the volume of flights crashes to about 2% of the present volume. Another good test is that nobody dies because of the rules. If nobody dies, you can make the rules stricter. Of course you should avoid any casualties.
At the same time the development of solar electric and battery electric flight has to be stimulated. Hyperloop development should be subsidized. Sail ships, hydrofoil ships. That’s what real climate action would look like.