That Costa del Sol this is clearly marked on the landing maps of the thousands of private flights that fill European airspace every day, leaving behind millions of polluting emissions. So far this year, 8,056 routes have been made to Malaga, which makes this airport one of the main airports in Spain and Europe.

So far this year, according to the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA), Spain ranks itself as the fifth country with the most flights of this type, with 67,531 routes, after France, Britain, Germany and Italy.

Paris Le Bourget Airport, which operates only business flights, was the airport with the most trips, approaching 34,000. The first Spanish airport to make the list is Palma (10,135), in ninth position. Followed in twelfth place by Madrid (8,782) and in fourteenth place by Ibiza (8,497). He Costa del Sol Airportwith 8,056 private flights in the first seven months of the year, it is the seventeenth busiest in all of Europe and fourth in Spain.

In July alone, Malaga airport accommodated 1,763 business trips or in other words, almost 57 trips every day. This figure is slightly higher than in previous months this year, although the data shows an increase in trips as good weather arrives, starting in April.

According to EBAA data, throughout 2022 there were 15,084 flights transit business through Malaga airport, an average of 41 per day. In 2021 there were 14,176 cases and in 2020, when restrictions imposed during the pandemic severely limited mobility across the country, as in most of Europe, there were 7,823 cases.

MILLIONS OF POLLUTION EMISSIONS

This form of transportation was widely questioned by environmental entities such as Greenpeace in March issued a report underscores the tremendous improvement this aviation has experienced in recent years and the huge environmental impact it has had.

The NGO confirmed that only in 2022, personal trips increased by 64%. Specifically for Malaga, according to EBAA, last year the figure increased by 6%, an insignificant increase compared to the figure recorded in 2021, of 52%. In 2020, the year the restrictions were implemented, the number of trips decreased by only 17%.

Only the 2022 numbers, according to the report, led to the publication 3.3 million tonnes of CO2, “equivalent to the average annual emissions of 555,000 EU residents”. More than half of private jet flights across Europe are short or ultra-short flights with a range of less than 750 km, which are greener alternative routes of the same duration as trains or ferries.

For all these reasons, Greenpeace warrants that this business flight is theirs “more polluting, energy wasteful and less fair per passenger and kilometer” and laments that they are “exempt from laws governing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Countries like Austria, Belgium or the Netherlands has asked the European Commission to limit its use. While waiting for politics to take action, activists are still trying to make noise: in May, they violated the European Convention on Commercial Aviation to condemn pollution caused by private jet use and “damage to the environment”. hypocrisy of great wealth who use it “in the midst of increasing social inequality and an unprecedented climate crisis.”