A new report commissioned by environmental campaigners Greenpeace has raised concerns over emissions released by private jets in Europe.
The ‘CO2 emissions of private aviation in Europe’ report by Dutch environmental consultancy CE Delft claims that private jets emitted around 3,385,538 tonnes of CO2 emissions during 2022, more than double that of 2021.
The research also asserts that the total number of private jet flights in Europe reached 572,806, over 1.5 times the number of flights in 2021.
Following publication of the report, the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) has hit back at its findings.
The EBBA has accused Greenpeace of “spreading misleading data about business aviation” and not taking information into account from before the pandemic, creating a “distorted picture”.
The EBBA claims that European business aviation grew by 7% from 2019 to January 2023, rather than 64% as the report suggests.
A spokesperson for the EEBA said: “The number of European business flights is compared by Greenpeace to a historically low point during the COVID-19 crisis, instead of a regular year without travel restrictions. This creates an image of explosive growth even if that did not actually take place.”
The EBBA also states that business aviation overall represents just 0.04% of global CO2 emissions, and that contrary to what Greenpeace believes, the private jet industry is actually “driving aviation sustainability”.
According to CE Delft, the busiest European private jet routes during 2022 were:
- London-Paris or Paris-London, 3,357 flights, 9,629 tonnes CO2 emissions
- Nice-London or London-Nice, 2,896 flights, 15,435 tonnes CO2 emissions
- Paris-Geneva or Geneva-Paris, 2,745 flight, 6,916 tonnes CO2 emissions
- Paris-Nice or Nice-Paris, 2,311 flights, 8,615 tonnes CO2 emissions
- Geneva-London or London-Geneva, 1,997 flights, 8,008 tonnes CO2 emissions
- Geneva-Nice or Nice-Geneva, 1,671 flights, 3,886 tonnes CO2 emissions
- Rome-Milan or Milan-Rome, 1,667 flights, 5,358 tonnes CO2 emissions
- Milan-London or London-Milan, 1,355 flights, 6,235 tonnes CO2 emissions
- London-Farnborough or Farnborough-London, 1,343 flights, 2,692 tonnes CO2 emissions
- London-Amsterdam or Amsterdam-London, 1,298 flights, 3,219 tonnes CO2 emissions
The data also revealed that Nice Côte d’Azur Airport (34,710) was the busiest airport for private jet flights in 2022. Second was Paris-Le Bourget Airport (33,496(, third was Geneva Airport (28,630) and fourth was London Luton Airport (24,359).
CE Delft’s data showed that there were 3,093 private jet flights of under 100 km in Europe last year.
The report also revealed that in 2022 there were 13 private jet flights between Blackbushe and Farnborough in Hampshire – the two airports are 7.4km apart.
“Private jets are staggeringly polluting and generally pointless. Many of these journeys can be covered almost as quickly by train, and some of them by bicycle,” Doug Parr, the policy director at Greenpeace UK said. “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.”
He added: “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.”