NBAA is disputing a recent report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) about business jet emissions, saying the findings provide an inaccurate and incomplete picture of private aviation.
The ICCT report claims private jets are “a large and growing source of air and climate pollution,” noting that a typical aircraft emits about 810 tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHG) a year, the equivalent of 177 passenger cars. While private jets are concentrated in the U.S., the report further claims that in 2023, private jets collectively emitted more GHGs than all flights departing from London Heathrow Airport. In addition, the report says taxation of private jets could generate “substantial revenue” to support aviation decarbonization.
However, NBAA noted that the report's conclusions were based on a flawed extrapolation of flight trajectory data and provided an incomplete analysis of the flights involved. For instance, the report noted that they excluded nearly 12% of flights because they had incomplete departure or arrival information.
“The report’s authors draw their conclusions by leaning heavily on a dubious extrapolation of flight tracking data that, by the authors’ own admission, includes a double-digit percentage of flights with ‘incomplete departure or arrival information,’” Ed Bolen, NBAA’s president and CEO, said in the letter.
He pointed out that the report did not acknowledge that business aviation has reduced emissions by 40% over the past four decades and that new aircraft are up to 35% more efficient than earlier models.
The report also ignored that business aviation, which contributes less than 1% to all transportation emissions, has set a goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 through the use of sustainable aviation fuels and the development of electric, hybrid, and hydrogen propulsion technologies, among others.
Bolen concluded, “In offering a distorted picture of business aviation, [articles about the report miss] the larger point about its value: business aircraft allow companies to optimize efficiency, productivity, and flexibility in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.”