Sales of private jets are likely to reach their highest ever level this year, placing an increasing burden on the planet, while many of the owners escape aviation taxes, and there are few curbs on the greenhouse gases emitted, according to a report.
The global fleet of private jets has more than doubled in the last two decades, and more private flights were made last year than ever before, according to a thinktank report published on Monday. Greenhouse gas emissions from private aviation have increased by nearly a quarter since the pandemic, when flying of all types nearly ceased in many countries for an extended period.
There were 5.3m private flights globally in 2022, according to the report compiled by the US Institute for Policy Studies thinktank and the Patriotic Millionaires US group, which is made up of wealthy individuals pushing for higher wealth taxes.
Last year was the first time that private aviation surpassed its previous peak, which came in 2007, before the financial crisis of 2008-09 and global recession. Sales of pre-owned and new private jets are forecast to reach $34.6bn (£27.6bn) this year, up from $34.1bn last year.
Although private jet travel makes up only 4% of the global aviation market, it produces about 10 times as much greenhouse gas 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, still the global leader in private and business jet travel, passengers on commercial flights are in effect subsidising private flying. Taxes on private aviation raised only 2% of the tax revenue that is the primary funding for the Federal Aviation Administration, which operates air traffic control, even though private jets accounted for 17% of the flights handled.
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 recommends a 10% tax on all purchases of second-hand private jets, and a 5% tax on new aircraft. This would have raised $2.6bn in tax last year, the report found. The group also wants at least a doubling of fuel taxes on private jet travel, compared with commercial aviation.
Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter and founder of Tesla, who was outraged earlier this year when a tracker published details of his private jet activity, was named in the report as “the most active high flyer in the US”. He bought a new jet, made an estimated 171 flights in 2022, including one that lasted only six minutes, and contributed to the consumption of more than 800,000 litres of jet fuel, and was responsible for more than 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
He would have paid $4m in private jet taxes last year, if the proposed tax increases were implemented.