Let's make all Scottish flights carbon neutral with bold solar power offsetting scheme – Edinburgh Airport

He said: “The enemy here is carbon. It’s not aviation.

"It’s not the international student choosing to study here. It’s not the hard-earned family break in Tenerife.

"It’s not the flight to close the vital deal to bring investment into Scotland. It’s not the family moving to Scotland for a better life.”

The airport has said it became carbon neutral itself this year, and plans its own “solar farm” to provide one quarter of its energy needs.

However, Mr Dewar admitted a mechanism would have to be found to fund carbon offsetting from flying, which he estimated as less than £5 per passenger on flights within Europe.

In July, Loganair said it was the first airline to overtly introduce a compulsory environmental levy with a £1 “carbon offset charge” on flights as its first step to becoming carbon neutral by 2040.

Mr Dewar, who announced his “big idea” at the Scottish Passenger Agents Association’s centenary dinner, said: “Let us, as Scotland’s travel industry, take responsibility for some or all of the aviation carbon emitted while our customers were in the air.

"We know that airlines can’t take all the pain themselves, and why should they, when we all benefit from what they do?

“But that burden is surprisingly small if it were shared wider - less than £5 per European passenger at current carbon prices.

“Let us say that over time we would find ways to collect funds to meet that carbon so that every passenger flying to and from Scotland could do it carbon neutrally.