An Oxford vet has taken part of a blockade at the nation's largest private jet airport with climate activists blocking three main gates. 

Dr Jessica Upton, 54, is a veterinary surgeon and foster carer from Oxford, and said private airports were an "abomination". 

Extinction Rebellion (XR) climate activists blocked access to Farnborough Airport in Hampshire on Sunday (June 2) to protest against the "increasing use of highly polluting private jets by the super-rich". 

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The group has called on the government to ban private jets, tax frequent flyers and make polluters pay.

An XR spokesperson said the blockade was part of a global week of action against private aviation under the banner Make Them Pay with actions in Denmark, Germany, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the US, and follows Europe’s largest private jet convention EBACE in Geneva this week.

Farnborough Airport was targeted because it is the UK's largest private jet airport and it is seeking planning permission to increase the number of planes taking off and landing. 

Dr Upton, of Oxford, said: "Expanding Farnborough would be putting the indulgent wants of the rich minority over the needs of the majority."

"Local people need cleaner air and less noise pollution, and the world’s population urgently needs rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to survive."

"Private airports disproportionately contribute to climate breakdown and closing them would boost our chances of sticking to the Paris Climate Accords, the supposedly legally binding international treaty agreed to and signed by our government.“

Last year 33,120 private flights landed and took off from Farnborough Airport with an XR spokesperson saying there was an average of "just 2.5 passengers per flight, making them up to 40 times more carbon intensive than regular flights". 

The spokesperson continued: "Currently 40 per cent of flights to and from the airport are empty.

"The airport is now seeking planning permission to increase the number of planes taking off or landing from a maximum of 50,000 a year to up to 70,000 a year."

Protesters barricaded the airport's Gulfstream Gate with an XR pink boat with 'LOVE IN ACTION' painted on the side, with four protesters locking themselves to oil drums at Ively Gate while an activist mounted a tripod blockading the entrance. 

XR said a fourth group of protesters had played "cat and mouse" with the airport authorities, moving between the airport’s other gates to block them. 

Protesters released colourful smoke flares, chanted slogans and engaged with members of the public, while joined by an XR drumming band called Rebel Rhythms. 

XR claimed that, despite Farnborough Airport branding itself as a centre for business aviation, around 50 per cent of flights headed to the Mediterranean during summer months "rather than business locations". 

They said around 25 per cent headed to Alpine destinations in the winter.