Countries like the U.K. already charge poor tax on airlines - fly 20 people from london to paris in a 747 and you pay far less tax than than flying 100 people on an a319, despite causing far more pollution.

Instead charge based on the length of flight the the efficiency of the plane, regardless of how many people are actually on.

You’ll probably have to cap the tax on longer flights east otherwise everyone would transfer via Istanbul or ME3, but it wouldn’t require taxing fuel, or having airlines fuel up at the other end

Did you mean “tax the flying”?

There are big benefits to being global transit hubs. Cheaper fuel is one way to become that.