Chancellor Gordon Brown’s portrayal of last week’s increase in air passenger duty (APD) as a way of tackling carbon dioxide emissions has been dealt a blow by the revelation that passengers flying on the new generation of all-business-class airlines are only paying half as much APD as business passengers on other airlines.

The Government introduced new rates of APD on 1 February. The rules are worded such that passengers flying in an airline’s lowest class of travel pay a reduced rate compared to those in other classes of travel. For airlines operating traditional economy, business and first class services, such as British Airways, this means that long-haul economy passengers pay £40 while business and first class passengers pay £80. By comparison, passengers on Eos, MAXjet and newcomer Silverjet pay just £40.

The increase in APD has been trumpeted by Chancellor Gordon Brown’s Pre-Budget Report as a green measure. At the time, Brown said: “The Government recognises the role that air passenger duty can play in tackling the climate change impact of aviation. The Government will therefore increase air passenger duty rates with effect from 1 February 2007.”

Boeing 757-200s emit around 13 kg of carbon dioxide per kilometre on long-haul routes. On an Eos flight between Stansted and New York JFK in which all 48 flat bed seats are full, that amounts to around 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per passenger.

By comparison, Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 747-400s emit around 24kg of carbon dioxide per kilometre on long-haul routes. But with around 400 passengers when full, each passenger’s share is just 0.66 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Eos, which has today announced the launch of a third daily service between Londno and New York, would not comment on the anomaly other than to say it was complying with the government’s directives.

Silverjet told Times Online. “We believe the doubling of this tax and its retrospective introduction are stealth taxes in green camouflage, which will do nothing to help reduce carbon emissions.

"In fact, the tax is counterproductive, as passengers may believe they have already offset their carbon emissions by having paid this tax, when in fact the tax will not result in one iota less carbon being produced or offset.”