Brussels, 30 Mar (EFE).- Private flights in Europe have increased by 64% between 2021 and 2022, according to data published today by the environmental organization Greenpeace, which is calling on European Union authorities and member states to ban “private jets” as part of the EU climate policy.

“It is so unfair that rich people can damage the climate in this way, polluting more in one flight than driving a car 23,000 kilometers. Pollution from wasteful luxury must come first, we need a ban on private jets,” said Thomas Gelin, Greenpeace’s head of EU transport, in a statement.

The number of private flights in the twenty-seven EU states plus the UK, Switzerland and Norway rose from 118,756 in 2020 to 350,078 in 2021 and 572,806 in 2022, the report detailed.

“The average carbon emission from each private ‘jet’ flight in Europe in 2022 is 5.9 tons of CO2, more than driving an average petrol car for 23,000 kilometers” or the equivalent of “driving from Paris to Rome 16 times,” the platforms said.

The countries with the most private jet flights in Europe in 2022 are France, UK and Germany and the three most popular destinations are Nice and Paris in France, and Geneva in Switzerland and the busiest route is Paris-London, with an average of nine private flights each day although there is a rail link between the two cities with 14 daily trains in each direction, Greenpeace said.

In the case of Spain, the report shows that private aviation increased from 5,388 trips in 2020 to 45,633 in 2022, and its pollution emissions increased from 18,275 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2020 to 243,851 tonnes in 2022.

Palma de Mallorca Airport is the most used of this type of flight in Spain, with 7,932 private aircraft trips in 2022.

Traditionally, the shortest route for flights within Spain with at least ten flights a year has usually been the one connecting Palma de Mallorca with Ibiza, but in 2022 the 44.5 kilometer section separating La Coruña from Santiago de Compostela was introduced.

The Greenpeace study, prepared by Dutch environmental consultancy CE Delft and sourced from CIRIUM Analytics observatory data, also shows that 55% of private flights in Europe in 2022 will be between distances of less than 750 kilometers. EFE

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