Private jets are something like ten times more carbon-emitting than normal commercial flights and fifty times more than trains. They are a significant part of the reason that half the emissions from aviation are caused by the activity of 1% of the world’s population - almost entirely the extremely wealthy.
Despite European governments’ professions of concern about climate change, private jet flights taking off in Europe increased by 64% last year, with emissions from them more than doubling to over 3m tonnes of CO2.
As in so many bad things, the UK leads the way. Here the number of flights increased 75%. The UK topped the league tables for the busiest route, the most polluting route and the most flights overall, emitting over 500,000 tonnes. Last year a private jet took off in the UK every six minutes.
Four in ten private jet flights in Europe are “very short-haul”, meaning less than 310 miles. By far the shortest of the ten most popular private jet routes was in the UK – London to Farnborough, which is 31 miles!
Many environmental campaigns are calling for private jets to be banned. It’s hard to see an argument against, except accommodating to the desires and whims of the super-rich. (Obviously you can argue around the edges about what should be included in a ban.) As Greenpeace put it:
“Millions of people around the world are facing climate chaos, losing livelihoods or worse, while a tiny minority are burning jet fuel like there’s no tomorrow. If the government is serious about net zero and a fair transition to low-carbon transport, then private jets should be first on the chopping block.”
The European Transport Workers’ Federation and the International Transport Workers’ Federation, which include aviation workers’ unions, have called for measures to radically curb such flights, including a focused tax on aviation fuel.
Caroline Lucas MP has made the argument we should be hearing from Labour MPs and union leaders: “Private jets are the climate-wrecking preserve of the mega-rich. So it’s no surprise that a government – run by millionaires, for millionaires – is allowing privileged private jet flyers to flourish at the expense of people and planet.
“If the government’s not prepared to ban private jets, then at the very least it should be levying a super tax on private jet travel, and use those proceeds to fund the transition to a green economy.”
• Thanks to aviation workers’ group Safe Landing, from whose Twitter thread and the articles and reports it links to this is almost entirely taken. For an interview we did with Safe Landing last year, see here.