A New Study Finds That The U.S. Is The Largest Source Of Private Jet Emissions.
The private jet lobby is pushing hard for a massive tax break for billionaires and centi-millionaires that use the most polluting form of transportation on the planet.
Legislation rapidly moving through Congress, the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” — really a Big Ugly Grift (BUG) — includes a massive tax subsidy for private jet buyers. Instead of corporations deducting the purchase of their jets over several years of their useful life, the BUG includes 100 percent “bonus depreciation” in the year of purchase.
For example, a corporation purchasing a $50 million private jet could potentially deduct the entire $50 million from their taxes in the year of the purchase, rather than spreading the deduction over many years. This amounts to a massive taxpayer subsidy, as ordinary taxpayers pick up the tab for the private jet industry and billionaire high flyers.
From our IPS research on private jets, we know that regular taxpayers and commercial air travelers subsidize the high-flying excess of private jet owners. In the U.S. private jets use seven percent of the airspace but only contribute 0.6 percent of the cost of using it.
As wealth has concentrated into the vaults of the ultra-wealthy, the demand for private jets is surging. Every billionaire appears to need one or two. As a result, private jets are one of the largest and fastest growing sources of air and climate pollution. In 2023, private jets emitted 19.5 million tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a 25 percent increase over 2013 levels.
A new study, from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), analyzed global private jet pollution and emissions for 2023. They found that private jets, which account for about four percent of all global aviation, together emitted more GHG than all flights departing from Heathrow Airport, the busiest airport in Europe.
ICCT, the researchers best known for uncovering the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal, have developed the first global mapping of private jet air and climate pollution, spatially locating more than 90 percent of private jet activity and emissions to airports and countries.
The study found that private jet activity and emissions are overwhelmingly concentrated in the U.S. In 2023, private jets departing U.S. airports accounted for 65 percent of flights and 55 percent of all private jet GHG emissions globally. Eighteen of the twenty most polluting airports are based in the U.S. That includes Hanscom Field outside of Boston, the locus of a huge campaign to block private jet hangar expansion.
Private jet travel originating in Florida and Texas generated more private jet operations and emissions than the entire European Union combined, according to the ICCT study. A private jet emits about 810 tons of GHGs in a typical year, equivalent to 177 passenger cars or nine Class 8 heavy-duty trucks.
Many private jet flights are short hops, less than 560 miles and two hours, and the majority are for recreational purposes, not for business meetings. In France, there are proposals to ban short hop flights, especially when other transportation options exist.
Instead of subsidizing private jets through the tax code, we should tax private jet fuels to ensure they reflect their real environmental costs. “As wealth inequality explodes globally, policymakers have begun to ask why private jet taxes are so low,” said Dan Rutherford, co-author of the ICCT report. “Given the slow pace of technological progress, it’s reasonable to charge ultrawealthy travelers more for their pollution.”
A tax on jet fuel could generate substantial revenue for high-speed rail and other decarbonization priorities. A global private jet fuel tax, modeled after Senator Ed Markey’s U.S. private jet fuel tax, could generate $3 trillion a year to offset the harms of private jet excess.
Subsidizing more private jets on a warming planet is reckless and indefensible. As Rutherford observes, “Private jets are like the canary in the coal mine here for a hyper unequal warming world.” Including tax breaks in the new tax bill reveals the pro-billionaire bias of Congress.
