AIRLINE passengers would pay up to £27 extra for a return ticket to cover the environmental damage caused by their flights, under European Commission proposals to address climate change.

Draft legislation to be published next month would require all flights arriving or departing from European Union airports to buy permits to cover their carbon dioxide emissions.

The document, a copy of which has been obtained by The Times, says that airlines would join Europe’s emissions trading scheme by 2011 and predicts that they would pass on the costs to their passengers.

The report estimates that passengers on flights within Europe would pay an extra €9 (£6) for a ticket, with the actual sum depending on the price of the permits. Those flying long haul would pay up to €39.60 (£27).

This will infuriate the United States and many other countries because it would affect all flights into and out of Europe, regardless of their origin or destination. US airlines would have to buy permits to cover their emissions on their European routes.

The Association of European Airlines (AEA) said that the proposal could provoke a trade war between the US and the EU, and raise the risk of flight restrictions and sanctions on European goods.

The commission previously appeared to favour a scheme that covered flights only starting and ending within the EU. But the document concludes that an intra-EU scheme would be far less effective, reducing CO2 emissions by 44 million tonnes compared with 183 million tonnes if all arriving and departing flights were included.

The document says that greenhouse gas emissions from international flights from EU airports grew by 7.5 per cent between 2003 and 2004, with a cumulative growth of 87 per cent from 1990 levels.

It says that aviation must be made to play its part in efforts to prevent global temperatures rising more than 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels.

Airlines would be required to start reporting and monitoring the emissions from 2010 in preparation for the permit scheme’s introduction in 2011.

The document says that the burden of complying with the scheme would fall more heavily on airlines using older, less efficient aircraft and on those that fail to sell a high proportion of their seats.

British airlines, which tend to have relatively new aircraft, would be less affected. Budget airlines such as Ryanair, which sell more than 80 per cent of their seats, would also find it cheaper to comply.

BA said it welcomed the principle of emissions trading but wanted it to be limited to flights within Europe. A spokesman said the costs of complying with the scheme would place an unfair burden on the airline in a fiercely competitive market. “It would disadvantage all EU long-haul carriers against their competitors.”

The spokesman said that the wide scope of the scheme was bound to provoke legal challenges, which could delay its introduction.

The US Air Transport Association said in a statement: “Air carriers have dramatically improved their fuel efficiency, and trading obligations are unnecessary to spur continued improvement.”

EMISSIONS SOAR

Aviation accounted for 5.5 per cent of total UK CO2 emissions in 2003.

British Airways estimates that aviation will account for up to 46 per cent of UK CO2 emissions by 2050

Last year 43 per cent of British passengers had made more than three return trips in the preceding 12-months. Half the population did not fly at all last year