The cut-price airline ticket is fuelling a boom which has led to Gatwick Airport producing 18 times as much pollution as the whole of Crawley.

A new study by the Gatwick Area Consultative Committee (GACC) says airliners release the equivalent of 13 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

By comparison all of the homes, businesses, factories and vehicles in Crawley generate 735,000 tonnes, according to Government statistics.

Report author Brendon Sewill, chairman of the committee, said every passenger travelling though the airport generates 22st of carbon dioxide, or 13st 5 lbs of sooty carbon.

He said: "Because aircraft produce invisible carbon dioxide few Gatwick passengers give a thought to the damage they are causing.

"If, as a stunt, protesters were to scatter 85 bags of soot over passengers in the Gatwick departure lounge there would be a barrage of complaints. Yet few passengers realise that is a measure of the damage each passenger does to the atmosphere. And the same again on the return journey."

The report takes account of the extra damage carbon dioxide is said to cause when released at high altitude.

Mr Sewill is using the research to call for greater taxes to be levied on the aviation industry. There is no tax on jet fuel and no VAT levied on air tickets.

Mr Sewill, a former Treasury adviser, said tax breaks were leading to runaway growth in the number of people using air travel, attracted by fares as low as easyJet's £36.98 return from Gatwick to Cologne in Germany including all taxes.

Passenger numbers at Gatwick are expected to grow to 42 million by 2015, a 100 per cent increase on 1990. He said this would lead to even more emissions.

Chris Todd, of Brighton and Hove and Mid Sussex Friends of the Earth, said: "I understand he's correct in saying carbon dioxide released from aircraft is released into the most sensitive part of the atmosphere, where it creates the greenhouse effect.

"I would support the call for tax on aviation."

Matt Gorman, BAA's corporate responsibility manager, said: "The issue of climate change raised by GACC is a common concern shared by the whole UK aviation industry and is not just a local issue for Gatwick."