Private jet flights have soared in recent years, with the resulting climate-warming emissions rising by 50 percent, the most comprehensive global analysis to date has revealed.
The assessment tracked more than 25,000 private jets and nearly 19 million flights between 2019 and 2023. It found almost half of the jets traveled less than 500 kilometers (311 miles) and 900,000 were used “like taxis” for trips of less than 50 kilometers (31) miles). Many flights were for holidays, arriving in sunny places in the summer. The FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022 attracted more than 1,800 private flights.
Private flights, used by just 0.003 percent of the world’s population, are the most polluting form of transportation. The researchers found that passengers in larger private jets caused more CO2 emissions in an hour than the average person did in a year.
The US dominated private jet travel, accounting for 69 percent of flights, and Canada, the UK and Australia were all in the top 10. A private jet takes off every six minutes in the UK. Total emissions from private jet aircraft in 2023 were more than 15 million tons, more than the 60 million people of Tanzania released.
Industry expectations it is another 8,500 business jets will enter service by 2033, far outpacing efficiency gains and indicating that private flight emissions will rise even further. The researchers said their work highlights the huge global inequality in emissions between richer and poorer people, and that tackling the emissions of the wealthy minority is critical to ending global warming.
Prof Stefan Gössling at Linnaeus University in Sweden, who led the research, said: “The rich are a very small part of the population, but increase their emissions very quickly and by very large levels of magnitude.” He added: “The growth in global emissions that we are experiencing at this time is come from above.”
The research, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environmenthave data from the ADS-B Exchange platformwhich records the signals sent once a minute by transponders on each aircraft, recording its position and altitude. This large data set – 1.8 terabytes – was then filtered for the 72 aircraft models marketed by their manufacturers as “business jets”. The emissions figures are most likely an underestimate, as smaller aircraft and emissions from taxiing on the ground are not included.
The analysis found the number of private jets increased by 28 percent and the distance flown jumped by 53 percent between 2019 and 2023. Less than a third of the flights were longer than 1,000 kilometers (621 mi) and nearly 900,000 flights were less than 50 kilometers (31 mi).
“We know that some people really use them as taxis,” Gössling said. “If it’s only 50 kilometers, you can definitely do it by car.” Outside the US and Europe, Brazil, the Middle East and the Caribbean are private jet hotspots.
Much of the use is recreational, the researchers found. For example, the use of private jets to Ibiza in Spain and Nice in France peaked in the summer and was concentrated around weekends. In the US, Taylor Swift, DragonsFloyd Mayweather Jr., Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey are among those who criticized for heavy private jet use.
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 having 291 flights.
Gössling said the drivers behind the large recent increase in private jet use have not been analyzed, but may include a growing reluctance to share cabins on commercial flights that began during the COVID pandemic. Operating documents described private jet users as “ultra-high net worth”, consisting of approximately 250,000 individuals, with an average wealth of $123 million. American private jet users are increasingly using “privacy ICAO addresses,” which hides the identity of the plane and could make it much more difficult to track them down in the future.
According to Gössling, passengers should pay for the climate damage resulting from each ton of CO2 emitted, estimated at around €200 ($214): “Very basically, it seems fair that people pay for the damage they cause through their behavior.”
A second step would be to increase the landing fees for private planes, which are currently very low, he added. A €5,000 ($5,351) landing fee can be an effective deterrent, roughly doubling the cost of regular private flights.
Alethea Warrington, head of aviation at the climate charity Possible, said: “Private jets, used by a small group of ultra-rich people, are a completely unjustifiable and wasteful waste of our scarce remaining emissions budget for climate collapse and their avoid emissions. rises, even as the impact of the climate crisis increases.”
“It’s time for governments to act,” she said. “We need … a super tax, which quickly comes to an outright ban on private jets.”
The US Private Aviation Association did not respond to a request for comment.
