Personal jet flights in Europe soar to report ranges — and most have been ultra-short journeys

A non-public jet aviation increase reveals no indicators of slowing.

Evaluation printed Thursday by environmental marketing campaign group Greenpeace confirmed the variety of personal jet flights in Europe final 12 months rose by a whopping 64% to succeed in a report excessive of 572,806.

Personal jet emissions, which have a disproportionate impression on the atmosphere, have been discovered to have greater than doubled in Europe in 2022, exceeding the annual per capita carbon emissions of 550,000 European Union residents.

Greater than half (55%) of the personal jet flights in Europe final 12 months have been ultra-short journeys beneath 750 kilometers (466 miles), Greenpeace mentioned, noting that these have been journeys that would have been taken by practice or ferry as an alternative.

It comes at a time when Europe is within the grip of a extreme winter drought and shortly after the area’s driest summer season in no less than 500 years. Scientists warned in late January {that a} lack of groundwater throughout the continent meant the water state of affairs was now “very precarious.”

“The alarming progress of personal jet flights is solely at odds with all of the local weather science that tells us to convey down CO2 emissions instantly with a purpose to avert whole catastrophe,” mentioned Klara Maria Schenk, transport campaigner for Greenpeace’s Mobility for All marketing campaign.

“Lowering oil-powered transport instantly is a no brainer, beginning with a ban on energy-wasting ultra-polluting personal jets that present no worth for individuals, but burden them with dangerous emissions, poisonous microparticles and noise, harming our local weather, atmosphere and well being,” Schenk mentioned.

The evaluation discovered that the international locations with essentially the most personal jet flights in Europe final 12 months have been the U.Ok., France and Germany.

The preferred locations for personal jet flights in Europe in 2022 have been the French Riviera metropolis of Good, France’s capital of Paris and Switzerland’s second-most populous metropolis of Geneva.

Greenpeace mentioned the analysis, which was carried out by Dutch environmental consultancy CE Delft, was based mostly on information supplied by aviation analytics firm Cirium. It assessed all personal flights departing from and arriving in European nations from 2020 by to 2022 and separated these journeys by 12 months, route and plane kind.

Some small plane sorts with lower than three seats have been excluded as these have been journeys predominantly used for leisure. The information additionally excludes flights to and from the identical airport and journeys to and from airports with no distinctive Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation code.

Personal jet use has been hovering for a while. Certainly, main personal jet producers have been racing to maintain tempo with the uptick in demand because the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with first-time consumers fueling report gross sales.

A wealth increase, stronger leisure demand and the gradual loosening of Covid-19 restrictions are a number of the components seen driving the rise in personal jet demand.

Personal jet emissions in Europe have soared at a sooner fee than industrial aviation in recent times.

Information from the non-governmental group Transport & Atmosphere reveals that personal jets are as much as 14 occasions extra polluting than industrial planes per passenger, and as much as 50 occasions extra polluting than trains.

That is as a result of, in only one hour, a single personal jet can emit two metric tons of carbon dioxide. In the meantime, the typical particular person within the EU emits 8.2 metric tons of CO2 equal over the course of a complete 12 months.

Earlier this month, the world’s main local weather scientists printed a “survival information for humanity,” calling for a deep, speedy and sustained discount in greenhouse gasoline emissions to restrict warming to 1.5 levels Celsius.

This temperature threshold refers back to the aspirational objective of the landmark Paris Settlement.

It’s extensively considered a vital international goal as a result of so-called tipping factors grow to be extra doubtless past this stage of worldwide heating. Tipping factors are thresholds at which small adjustments can result in dramatic shifts in Earth’s total life assist system.