Last year, writing for The New York TImes Magazine, writer Gideon Lewis-Kraus explored the strange and rarefied world of private jet sales. It made for a fascinating read, as well as a window into the mindset of, well, what it might mean to own your own plane. “And now our current president has brought the spirit of the private plane — the great symbol of extreme excess in isolated and theoretically productive comfort — to American public life,” Lewis-Kraus wrote.
It might be more than just American public life, as it turns out. A new report from Rupert Neate at The Guardian indicates that the market for private jets is booming almost everywhere around the world. (A notable exception? Sweden, where Greta Thunberg’s criticism of air travel has had an impact.) That means that a lot of money is being spent — and a lot of carbon per passenger is going to be affecting the environment.
Neale has the key statistics, based on a report from Honeywell Aerospace:
Despite their huge carbon footprint, demand for new private jets is expected to continue to grow next year, according to the report. Over the next decade, the number of new private jets taking to the skies is expected to total 7,600 – costing buyers a combined $248bn (£193bn).
As for the question of who’s buying these? The United States and China combined accounted for around 66%, while European buyers accounted for another 20%.
There’s plenty of other information in Neate’s article, including details on some of the planes being purchased and information on the rise of the “super-emitter” class, which is exactly as unsettling as it sounds, on multiple levels.
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