Flight prices are “too cheap” and should be raised to reduce carbon emissions caused by the aviation industry.

That is according to Dee who joined Lunchtime Live earlier and said people should spend their summer holidays in Ireland as opposed to Spain.

It comes as Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has warned of higher airfares this summer due to capacity constraints within the aviation industry.

These constraints are caused by a global backlog of plane engines needing repair and delays in the delivery of new planes from manufacturer Boeing.

Dee said there are too many flights happening as is when a “climate catastrophe” looms over the world.

“Aviation counts for 4% of global emissions and while that doesn’t sound huge – it is huge,” she said.

“Planes are problematic and it's wealthy countries that are releasing the most carbon - because emissions are linked to wealth.

“I think the bigger picture is that we’ve had an almost 50% increase of carbon in the atmosphere since the beginning of the 1900s – it’s risen exponentially.”

Alternatives

Dee, who does not fly unless she “really needs to,” said there are alternatives to flying.

“We have to change our thinking and ask if we can travel by train or boat instead,” she said.

“Boat isn’t great either but at least there are more people on a ship than a plane.

“[Flight prices] should be almost out of reach so that we’re not doing it at the drop of a hat and we have to think about it.”

A Brittany Ferry traveling to Spain. Photo: Brittany Ferry

Thomas, a caller to the show, said some flights “can be too cheap” - but insisted that summer vacationers are not the issue.

“The reality is the majority of aviation emissions are not coming from people taking a Spanish holiday every three years,” he said.

“The reality is the majority of it is travel for business and also frequent flyers – we need to address that.

“I think we need to look at, very strongly, proposals around frequent flyer taxes.”

Frequent flyers

Thomas said he has previously been a frequent flyer through work and saw firsthand just how unnecessary some flights are.

“I had two meetings one day after another, one of them was in Paris and I spent longer in the queue at Dublin Airport than I did speaking at the event,” he said.

“I was obliged to do it, I had no choice as there was no option for doing it remotely.

“The following day I had an event where I managed to do the entire thing from my sitting room and the engagement was twice what it was the day previous.

“The tons of emissions that we contributed, for what reason?”

Not that cheap

Travel influencer Rory, from Rory’s Travel Club, said flight costs are not as cheap as people are led to believe.

“People would talk about €25 flights from Ireland to France but the last 10, 20, 30 seats on the plane will be over €300," he said.

“People need to realise that not every seat on the plane will be €25 – it might only be the first 20% or 30% before prices start going up.

“The average price is not €25; it could be €150 when you work it out overall.”

Rory said Ireland could be impacted by a hike in air travel costs as the country "relies" on tourism.

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Main image: A Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS aircraft in Palma de Mallorca, Spain in August 2011. Picture by: Greg Bajor / Alamy Stock Photo