Private aviation is making a growing contribution to climate change

Commercial aviation’s contribution to climate change is growing, but the global role of private aviation is not well quantified. Here we calculate the sector’s CO₂ emissions, using flight tracker data from the ADS-B Exchange platform for the period 2019 to 2023. Flight times for 25,993 private aircraft and 18,655,789 individual flights in 2019-2023 are linked to 72 aircraft models and their average fuel consumption. We find that private aviation contributed at least 15.6 Mt CO₂ in direct emissions in 2023, or about 3.6 t CO₂ per flight. Almost half of all flights (47.4%) are shorter than 500 km. Private aviation is concentrated in the USA, where 68.7% of the aircraft are registered. Flight pattern analysis confirms extensive travel for leisure purposes, and for cultural and political events. Emissions increased by 46% between 2019-2023, with industry expectations of continued strong growth. Regulation is needed to address the sector’s growing climate impact.

Stefan Gössling, Andreas Humpe, Jorge Cardoso Leitão