Sorry, Trump: Scotland slaps private jet tax on the uber-rich – here’s why it’s such a good idea

If Donald Trump chooses to visit his Scottish golf courses after the conclusion of his second term in office, he might want to double check the bill.

From the 2028-29 tax year, passengers landing in Scotland on private planes will pay a higher rate of tax than those travelling on commercial jets.

The exact cost of the surcharge – revealed in the SNP’s budget on Tuesday (13 January) – is under consideration.

But it will help “make Scotland fairer”, Shona Robison, the Scottish finance secretary, told MSPs.

“I say to those who choose to travel by private jet, in Scotland you will pay, and pay a fair share, for that privilege,” she said. “And, in doing so, you will be helping us make Scotland the fairer nation we all know it can and should be.”

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Donald Trump last visited Scotland as a private citizen in 2023, on a personal Boeing 757 that he has dubbed “Trump Force One”.

But he’s far from the only private jetsetter. An average of 1,050 private jet flights took off or landed in Scotland every month last year, according to Oxfam analysis.

“Taxing jets is a really important thing to do,” Anna Hughes, director of Flight Free UK, told Big Issue. “It’s obviously about the emissions, but it’s increasingly about justice. So the fact that the rich elite are the ones who create the most pollution, yet we all suffer, and arguably the poorest suffer the most because they’re least equipped to deal with the climate crisis.”

“Taxing private jets is a good reflection of rebalancing the difference in emissions,”

Under the Scottish government’s plans, a new Air Departure Tax (ADT) will replace UK-wide Air Passenger Duty for all flights leaving Scottish airports from April 2027. Initially, it will mirror existing UK rates, which range from the cheapest short‑haul economy seat (around £8 per passenger) to the highest long‑haul premium travel bands (around £1,140 per passenger).

But from the 2028-29 tax year, a distinct private jet surcharge will be added on top, reflecting the far higher emissions involved. Private jets produce five to 14 times more carbon per passenger on the same journey. A single private jet can emit as much carbon in a year as around 177 passenger cars, or nine heavy-duty trucks.

The current tax paid by customers on these polluting private jets is “ridiculously low”, said Alethea Warrington, head of aviation at climate charity Possible.

“The range of Air Passenger Duty paid by private jets is between about £140 and £1,140 per passenger, for a flight that costs £20,000 pounds per hour to hire.”

Possible is calling for the private jet surcharge to be set at around 30 times the highest rate paid by commercial passengers. They claim this matches the proportion of tax an ordinary person would pay on their ticket and scales it up for private jet customers.

“It’s not that high, considering the cost of the flight and the cost to the planet,” said Warrington.

What about in the rest of the UK?

The UK government will increase Air Passenger Duty for larger private jets from 2027.

Under those reforms, long‑haul private jet passengers could face charges similar to the current higher APD band, which exceeds £1,100 per person.

But this falls far short of what campaigners hope for. Possible’s modelling suggests that applying a Scottish style tax across the UK – and adding a tax on private jet fuel – could raise around £2.7 billion a year.

“Quite a nice contribution to public finances given the need to get some more money in from the tax take,” said Warrington.

However, private jets are just one part of the conversation – frequent fliers are far more polluting.

It “should be a political no brainer” said Hughes – half of Brits don’t fly every year, while around 10% of people in England took more than half of all international flights.

But efforts to apply a levy for frequent flights so have met with culture war politicking.

Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, described efforts last year to introduce a 2% sustainable aviation levy as “yet another egregious tax on working citizens to pay for the ludicrous net stupid zero. A Reform government will scrap all this nonsense.”

This kind of argument doesn’t reflect the reality of who is flying, Hughes continued.

“The evidence shows its wealthy, frequent flyers doing the bulk of the flying. It’s not about ‘ordinary people’ and their holidays.”

Trump has a net worth of around $7.3bn. It’s unlikely that the private jet levy will keep him away from Scotland – but at least he’ll be contributing a little more to the public purse if he does visit.

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