Why the French have the right idea when it comes to private jets
This summer brought with it extreme heat, burning forests and punishing droughts. But that was of little concern to Europe’s holidaying elite, partying hard in Ibiza or sunning themselves on the beaches of Sardinia and the French Riviera.
Post-pandemic, the super rich are opting to fly solo – or at least with people they know very well – more than ever. Demand for private jets is rising among customers looking to avoid airport ‘touch points’ as well as delays and cancellations. In July alone there were 12,000 departures from London, many following routes with commercial alternatives, and some on journeys so short that they could easily have been made by car or train. They’re seemingly unconcerned that a single private jet can emit up to two tonnes of CO2 in one hour according to the NGO Transport & Environment: that’s almost a quarter of the yearly footprint of the average person in the UK.
Only 20 per cent of private jet flights are officially for leisure, but some taken for ‘business’ purposes might not be as serious as their passengers would have you believe. “There seemed to be a lot of meetings occurring on the Greek Islands in July,” says Leo Murray of another NGO, Possible. “For the super-rich, the lines between work and pleasure are blurred.”
Against this backdrop, regular holidaymakers are being urged to fly less in order to do their bit to combat climate change. While there’s no doubt that taking any plane significantly increases your carbon footprint, the average emissions of a private jet passenger are between five and 14 times more polluting than commercial planes (per passenger), according to data from Transport & Environment. It makes it hard to enthusiastically forego an annual air journey while the ultra-wealthy continue their flagrant show of conspicuous fuel burning.
The worst offenders
Celebrities are among the worst offenders. In July, marketing agency Yard Digital made the news when it ranked celebrity private jet users according to their carbon emissions, compiled using data scraped from the Twitter account @Celebjets.
Taylor Swift nabbed the number one spot, allegedly burning 8,293.54 tonnes of CO2 in the period between January and July 2022 – that’s the equivalent of 14 commercial aircraft flights between London and New York, with around 350 passengers onboard. Swift’s lawyers countered that, as her jet was frequently loaned out to other people, she wasn’t entirely responsible for its footprint.
The catalyst for the analysis was an Instagram shot taken by Kylie Jenner, who has the world’s second largest following on the social platform. It featured her and boyfriend Travis Scott embracing on the tarmac between two planes and was accompanied with the caption: “You wanna take mine or yours?” The snap created something of a furore in the comments section.
“Here I am recycling everything, buying second hand clothes, vegan, walking/bus/cycle everywhere. This year we had wildfires in London for the first time ever. And yet here are these idiots showing off their ‘his n hers’ jets taking short journeys that emit tons of carbon,” wrote one Instagram user.
Amid the criticism though, there was plenty of admiration: “Don’t act like y’all wouldn’t do this if you were in her shoes,” said another. While some are left furious, conspicuous private jet use by the rich and famous has made the idea more aspirational to others.
It’s one of the reasons behind the discount charter and sharing services that have sprung up in recent years. One such is Empty Jets, which takes advantage of empty legs (which it says account for 40 per cent of all private jet flights) to offer significantly discounted fares. A recent last-minute slot from London Luton to Paris Le Bourget was offered at £11,500, about 40 per cent less than normal.
Toby Edwards, managing director of private jet booking platform Victor, is dismissive of these services. “Empty legs are much less of a thing than ten years ago due to more sophisticated operating systems,” he says. He’s not a fan of jet-sharing either. “The key reason for flying private is privacy,” he says. “If you share with strangers, haven’t you removed the key reason?”
In fact, the reasons for choosing a private plane are more complex than that: about five per cent of business aviation is medical, with aircraft repatriating patients who have to lay flat, need ICU services or require a designated air pressure level (the figure rose to 40 per cent during the pandemic). Heads of State and other high-profile passengers might fly private because of the security risk to other passengers if they were on a commercial plane.
The European Business Aviation Association thinks that the focus on celebrity and leisure passengers is giving the industry a bad name, especially as it has a commitment to Net Zero by 2050 in line with the targets of the International Air Transport Association. “Our industry is used to being flexible, last-minute and adaptable,” says chief operating officer Robert Baltus. “Because of this, we can be an incubator for a sustainable future, but the government has a key role to play. As an industry, we’re responsible for 0.04 percent of global emissions, but let’s have a conversation about how we can reduce those emissions.”
France's 'radical' approach
It’s this conversation that President Macron is keen to have. Aware that France has the second highest number of private jet departures of any European country (after Great Britain), its government is looking to limit their usage. “I think we have to act to regulate private jets,” its Transport Minister Clément Beaune told Le Parisien in August, citing the changes that the public were making to cope with global warming and the energy crisis. He intends to raise the issue during a meeting of EU transport heads next month in the hope of inspiring continent-wide action.
One rumour in the industry is that Macron’s government could suggest a radical approach, with fossil-fuel-powered private jets banned for shorter trips by 2030. It’s an idea that Leo Murray, who advised Labour on their aviation policy in 2019 and was a member of Grant Schapps’s Net Zero Transport Board, would like to see adopted in the UK.
“The people who take private jets are the consumers with the most means to do something about climate change,” he says. “We’ve all been told that by 2030 we won’t be able to buy a petrol or diesel car any more. The most obvious thing to do is say, ‘you will no longer be able to land in a UK airport in a fossil-fuel jet’.” He believes that this would push investment into sustainable aviation, where prototype electric and hydrogen fuel planes already exist but need private sector finance for further development.
“Everything’s a question of funding,” says Matt Finch of Transport & Environment. “These jets exist right now. They’re test jets but they’ve flown above Britain and France. Now, the industry needs to commercialise and Macron’s potential policy can help. Everyone who owns a jet in Monaco will need to look at options.”
Looking forward
Changes to regulations may take longer in the UK, where some high-profile politicians are confirmed fans of private aviation. At the start of this year, Liz Truss flew to Australia by private plane in her former role as Foreign Secretary, on a trip that cost British taxpayers more than £500,000 and took longer than the same journey by commercial airline. Last year, Boris Johnson made the headlines when he arrived at the G7 summit in Cornwall by private plane to discuss the climate crisis with other world leaders, generating five times the carbon emissions that he would have done if he’d taken the train.
Just like Jenner’s jaunt, both politician’s trips generated much criticism from the public, and it’s this that Finch feels may ultimately be the fossil-fuelled private jet’s downfall. Savvy celebrities are already turning to commercial planes to get about, improving their images in the process. Leonardo DiCaprio’s trip to last year’s Cop26 summit aboard a commercial flight, for example, garnered much positive publicity.
As Finch says, “Of all the things we can do as a species, flying by private jet is probably the most environmentally damaging. If DiCaprio can fly commercial as one of the world’s most recognisable actors, why can’t other private jet users? I think there are going to be a lot of businesses who start banning them because they don’t want the reputational damage.”
