• 1. If you dont already have one, create a Google account.
• 2. Click on to sign in to FLAP via Google.
• 3. Click on to plan new trips. Press plus or an available day on the calendar to enter details of all the flights that make up the trip and press Validate. FLAP will report whether the trip is allowed and if so when you will next be able to fly afterwards. If that date is acceptable to you press Submit and otherwise cancel or reschedule the trip for a later date
• 4. Click on to see your trip history.
• 5. Click on to see general statistics.

• Every user has an account, like a bank account, but of distance in kilometres rather than money. The distance of each completed flight is a withdrawl from this account.
• Every day FLAP credits the accounts of all users in deficit who aren't mid-trip with the same amount.
• In general you are not allowed a subsequent trip until your account has been return to credit following the previous trip. FLAP provides a commited date as to when this will be 90 days before the end of the pending trip so you can plan ahead with confidence.
• FLAP will also allow you to plan a sequence of up to three trips at any interval and regardless of your balance. However the date at which you will be able to fly again at the end of the sequence may be pushed out significantly as you finally have to wait for your balance to return to credit.
• The recommended approach is to plan one trip at a time when possible and to not plan your next trip until the end of your next trip is less than 90 days away. This is the best way to keep control of your account balance and work in a consistent way towards achieving the travel reduction goal.

The FLAP scheme works as follows:

• A distance account, analogous to a bank account, is opened for every traveller. Each account has a balance in kilometres, which starts at zero.
• Airlines withdraw the distance of each flight from the traveller's account at check-in.
• The "daily allowance" defines a total distance in kilometres. The account of every overdrawn traveller is credited with an equal share of the daily allowance at the start of each calendar day.
• Overdrawn travellers are not allowed to start a new trip, with airlines refusing any attempt to check in.

Lowering the daily allowance over time has the effect of lengthening the time between trips and thereby reducing air travel. Sharing the daily allowance out between those travellers in deficit is equitable but at the same time allows for continuing variability in the distance flown, both by individuals and overall over the course of each calendar year.

The concepts of “trip” and “clearance promise” add the additional flexibility needed to make the scheme practicable and low impact for all types of traveller. They work as follows:

• A trip is defined as any sequence of consecutive flights by a single traveller with a maximum length of 90 days from the start of the first flight to the end of the last.
• Travellers (or the airlines they fly with) are able to submit the details of a planned trip to FLAP in advance and obtain a clearance promise. This is a committed date after the completion of a specific trip when the traveller is allowed to fly again. regardless of their distance balance.
• Consecutive clearance promises can be "chained" to allow clusters of trips close together in time. Chained promises have a date that is artificially brought forward to accommodate the next trip. Chains have a maximum length, with the date of the last promise pushed further into the future to compensate for the distance deficit accrued over the length of the whole chain.

The overall effect of the system is to enforce a decreasing limit on how much distance is flown:

• Without placing a direct restriction on how much any one person can fly.
• Whilst applying the same rules apply to all travellers, regardless of how often they fly.
• Without levying taxes or making use of any other kind of financial incentive.

In order to make the service work as a voluntary service 10,000 simulated users (bots) created load on the system. These bots travel at varying frequencies to simulate real-world travel patterns and their travel frequency declines over time at the same rate as the daily total.

For more details on the thinking behind flap please refer to this white paper or the FLAP website.