A report reveals that sales of private jets are projected to reach record levels this year, posing a growing environmental burden as owners evade aviation taxes and emissions regulations remain lax.

The global private jet fleet has more than doubled over the past two decades, with last year witnessing a surge in private flights. Despite the pandemic causing a temporary halt in air travel, greenhouse gas emissions from private aviation have risen by nearly a quarter. The report, compiled by the US Institute for Policy Studies thinktank and the Patriotic Millionaires US group, highlights that there were 5.3 million private flights globally in 2022.

Last year marked a new peak for private aviation, surpassing pre-financial crisis levels in 2007. Sales of new and pre-owned private jets are projected to reach $34.6 billion (£27.6 billion) this year, up from $34.1 billion last year. Although private jet travel accounts for only 4% of the global aviation market, it generates approximately 10 times more greenhouse gas emissions per passenger.

Stephen Prince, the vice-chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, and founder of Card Marketing Services, said he was giving up his aircraft. “Flying on a private jet is amazing, it’s the best travel experience ever,” he said. “But having read this report, I’ve decided to sell my jet. It’s virtually impossible to square any iota of concern about the environment and humanity with the supreme selfishness of jumping on a big jet all by myself. It’s simply not right.”

In the US, which leads the world in private and business jet travel, commercial flight passengers effectively subsidise private flying. Taxes on private aviation contribute only 2% of the primary funding for the Federal Aviation Administration, responsible for air traffic control, despite private jets accounting for 17% of all flights.

Chuck Collins, co-author of the report, director of the programme on inequality and the common good, at the Institute for Policy Studies, said: “Private jet travel by billionaires and the ultra wealthy imposes a tremendous cost on the rest of us. Not only do ordinary travellers and taxpayers subsidise the airspace for private jets, but the high flyers also contribute considerably more pollution than other passengers. If we can’t ban private jets, we should at least tax them and require them to pay to offset their environmental damage and subsidies.”

The Patriotic Millionaires group proposes a 10% tax on second-hand private jet purchases and a 5% tax on new aircraft, which would have generated $2.6 billion in taxes last year. The group also advocates for a doubling of fuel taxes on private jet travel compared to commercial aviation.

The report singles out Elon Musk, owner of Twitter and founder of Tesla, as “the most active high flyer in the US.” Musk’s private jet activities, which were publicly revealed earlier this year, include the purchase of a new jet and an estimated 171 flights in 2022, some lasting as short as six minutes. These activities resulted in the consumption of over 800,000 litres of jet fuel and more than 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. If the proposed tax increases were implemented, Musk would have paid $4 million in private jet taxes last year.

 

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