Carbon Impact of Private Aviation in France

For the past two weeks, the topic of private aviation's environmental impact has captured everyone's attention. And while this debate, reignited by Julien Bayou and his proposal to "ban private jets," has always been a climate issue, do you know its impacts on our planet and their scale?

How much GHG would be avoided by replacing a private jet for a Paris-Nice trip?

The aviation sector has long been a battleground for ecological transition. A sector particularly criticized for its high climate impact, air transport as a whole accounts for 2% of global GHG emissions according to the WRI. Business aviation, on the other hand, is responsible for 8% of this traffic according to GAMA.

According to a May 2021 report by the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E), GHG emissions from private jet use increased by 31% between 2005 and 2019. This trend was not halted by the 2020 health crisis, because while the entire aviation sector suffered during this period, it was private aviation activity that rebounded the most. After a decrease of 70% and 90% respectively for private and commercial aviation at the peak of the crisis, compared to 2019 flight numbers, only private aviation managed to exceed its pre-Covid level. In May 2022, the number of private jet flights was 20% higher than the 2019 baseline, while commercial aviation struggled to regain its performance (-20% compared to 2019).

In 2019, one in ten flights departing from France was carried out by a private jet, half of which covered less than 500km. But the shortening of distances traveled by plane is not the only problem.

Indeed, a private jet has a much lower capacity than a commercial airliner. The 5 most popular jet models have an average of 7.4 seats. In comparison, an A320 has a capacity of 150 seats. According to T&E, jets even fly with an average of only 4.7 passengers.

Even though no official statistics exist, jet charter companies estimate that about 40% of flights are empty. Thus, in the case of a one-way trip, the aircraft used may have to travel to another airport for another mission. While this practice helps private aviation offer great flexibility, it also means fuel consumed without passengers.

And to answer the question initially posed, a commercial airliner emits 90% less GHG than a private jet (in terms of carbon impact per passenger.

Trains also emit 99.8% less GHG. The Paris-Nice journey varies greatly depending on the mode of transport. By train, only 3.5kgCO2e are emitted per passenger, this figure climbing to 86kgCO2e for a commercial airliner passenger.

With private jets, the carbon impact per passenger increases drastically due to the low number of passengers. Thus, a Paris-Nice trip by private jet results in the emission of nearly 2 tons of CO2e (1.8tCO2e) per passenger, which is as much as the theoretical carbon budget each individual must adhere to by 2050 if we want to achieve carbon neutrality.

Some key figures from the aviation sector and private jets

• The load factor for private jets is 38% compared to approximately 85% for commercial aviation.
• According to a study, in the United States, 70% of private jet flights are for companies with fewer than 500 employees, and 17% are for companies with more than 5000 employees.
• The average private jet owner has a fortune of 1.3 billion euros.
• GHG emissions from air transport account for 41% of the footprint of the richest 1% in Europe.
• In Europe, there are high-speed train lines on 70-80% of the most popular private jet routes.
• Among the 10 most popular private jet routes in Europe, 8 depart from or arrive in France at Le Bourget or Nice airports, according to the T&E report.
• In France, Paris – Le Bourget and Nice airports are responsible for 60% of emissions related to private aviation.
• In Europe, France and the United Kingdom dominate the private aviation market. Flights departing from these countries each emit more CO2 than those from 20 other European countries combined.