Environment & Energy

‘Used like taxis’: Soaring private jet flights drive up climate-heating emissions
Analysis of 19m flights between 2019 and 2023 reveals 50% rise in emissions, condemned as ‘gratuitous waste’

Damian Carrington Environment editor
Thu 7 Nov 2024 11.00 EST

Private jet flights have soared in recent years, with the resulting climate-heating emissions rising by 50%, the most comprehensive global analysis to date has revealed.

The assessment tracked more than 25,000 private jets and almost 19m flights between 2019 and 2023. It found almost half the jets travelled less than 500km and 900,000 were used “like taxis” for trips of less than 50km. Many flights were for holidays, arriving in sunny locations in the summertime. The Fifa World Cup in Qatar in 2022 attracted more than 1,800 private flights.

Private flights, used by just 0.003% of the world’s population, are the most polluting form of transport. 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, representing 69% 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. The total emissions from private jet flights in 2023 was more than 15m tonnes, more than the 60 million people of Tanzania emitted.

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