“Used like taxis”: Rising private jet flights are driving up climate-damaging emissions | Air transport

Private jet flights have surged in recent years, driving up climate-damaging emissions by 50%, the most comprehensive global analysis to date has found.

The research tracked more than 25,000 private jets and nearly 19 million flights between 2019 and 2023. It found that almost half of the jets traveled less than 500km and 900,000 were used “like taxis” for journeys of less than 50km. Many flights were holiday flights and landed in sunny locations in the summer. More than 1,800 private flights were carried out for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Private flights, used by only 0.003% of the world's population, are the most polluting form of transportation. The researchers found that passengers on larger private jets produced more CO2₂ emissions in an hour than the average person does in a year.

The US dominated private jet traffic, accounting for 69% of flights, and Canada, the UK and Australia were all in the top 10. A private jet takes off from the UK every six minutes. Total emissions from private jet flights were more than 15 million tons in 2023, more than Tanzania's 60 million people emitted.

The industry expects an additional 8,500 business jets to enter service by 2033, far outpacing efficiency gains and suggesting emissions from private flights will rise even further. The researchers said their work highlighted the huge global inequality in emissions between wealthier and poorer people and that tackling emissions from the wealthy minority was crucial to ending global warming.

Prof Stefan Gössling from Linnaeus University in Sweden, who led the research, said: “The rich make up a very small part of the population, but are increasing their emissions very quickly and on a very large scale.” He added: “The The increase in global emissions we are currently experiencing is coming from above.”

The study, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, relied on data from the ADS-B Exchange platform, which records signals sent once a minute from transponders on each aircraft and records their position and altitude. This massive data set – 1.8 terabytes – was then filtered by the 72 aircraft models marketed as “business jets” by their manufacturers. The emissions values ​​are most likely an underestimate as smaller aircraft and emissions from taxiing on the ground are not taken into account.

The analysis found that between 2019 and 2023, the number of private jets increased by 28% and the distances flown increased by 53%. Less than a third of flights were longer than 1000 km and almost 900,000 flights were less than 50 km long.

“We know that some people actually use them as taxis,” Gössling said. “If it's only 50 km, you could definitely do it by car.” Outside the USA and Europe, Brazil, the Middle East and the Caribbean are hotspots for private jets.

Much of the use is for leisure, the researchers found. For example, private jet use to Ibiza in Spain and Nice in France peaked in the summer and was concentrated on weekends. In the USA, Taylor Swift, Drake, Floyd Mayweather JR, Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, among others, have been criticized for their heavy use of private jets.

The researchers also looked at some business events in 2023, with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland leading to 660 private jet flights and the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai leading to 291 flights.

Gössling said the driving factors for the sharp recent rise in private jet usage had not been analyzed but could include an increasing reluctance to share cabins on commercial flights that began during the Covid pandemic. Industry documents describe private jet users as “extremely wealthy,” including about 250,000 people with an average net worth of $123 million. Users of U.S. private jets are increasingly using “private ICAO addresses,” which obscure the aircraft’s identity and could make them much more difficult to track in the future.

According to Gössling, passengers should pay for the climate damage caused by every ton of CO2₂ emitted, estimated at around 200 euros: “In principle, it would be fair for people to pay for the damage they cause through their behavior.”

A second step would be to increase the currently very low landing fees for private aircraft, he added. A landing fee of 5,000 euros could be an effective deterrent and roughly double the cost of traditional private flights.

Alethea Warrington, head of aviation at climate charity Opportunity, said: “Private jets used by a small group of ultra-rich people are a completely unjustified and unnecessary waste of our scant remaining emissions budget to prevent climate change and its emissions. “ are rising rapidly, even as the impacts of the climate crisis escalate.”

“It is time for governments to act,” she said. “We need… a super tax that quickly leads to a total ban on private jets.”

The US Private Aviation Association did not respond to a request for comment.