Jetting away with it: How private jets pollute the most and pay the least

This report assesses the recent growth in the private jet flight market since the pandemic hit, along with the levels of Air Passenger Duty (APD) paid on these flights. We found that the UK private jet market has grown rapidly in recent years, with one in ten planes departing UK airports now a private aircraft. During the early months of the pandemic this was even higher, with nearly one in four flights being a private jet.

Our analysis finds that first class passengers pay less per tonne of pollution (carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2e) than business class passengers, who pay less per tonne of pollution than economy class passengers. Private jet passengers pay the lowest rate of all in proportion to the emissions they produce. This is because even the higher rate of APD is set at a very low level that does not correspond to the emissions from private jet flights.

“The impacts of the climate crisis are already harming people around the world who will never set foot on a plane, let alone a private jet. We need urgent action to cut emissions -and it makes sense to start with the emissions which are most wasteful and least beneficial. It is hard to imagine emissions which are more excessive than those from private jets, which often depart with just one or two passengers sitting in a huge, virtually empty plane, which then flies its return journey with no passengers at all. Decades of missed environmental targets show that this industry isn’t going to sort itself out without regulation. So we need action from the government, and a ban on private jets.” Ali Warrington, campaign manager at Possible.

Due to the structuring of APD and exemptions from the tax for private jets below 5.7 tonnes, some private jets fall outside the tax entirely while others pay only the standard rate, despite producing much higher emissions per passenger than ordinary airline flights.

What’s more, the rate of tax levied on private jet flights compared to the cost of those flights is much lower than that levied on ordinary passengers. We calculated the proportion of a private jet ticket price which is paid in tax for an example route between London and Paris to be less than 2%, which is an order of magnitude smaller than the effective rate of tax paid on the ticket price of ordinary flights (43% for economy class and 23% for business class).

We’re calling for the rapid introduction of a ban on the sale of private jets in the UK, and of private jet flights powered by kerosene using UK airports, with an end-date of 2030 at the latest. Until this phase out takes effect, private jets should be taxed at a much higher rate to reflect their very high emissions. By providing regulatory certainty with a phase-out date for fossil-fuelled private jets, policymakers can send a clear positive signal to the market to accelerate the development of small electric passenger jets.