The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Private jets rule in Davos, as Europe’s leaders try to quash short flights

January 12, 2023 at 6:21 p.m. EST
A Gulfstream G650 from Executive Jet Management company, takes off from the Barcelona airport, in Barcelona on 26th May 2022. (NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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European policymakers are trying to reduce short flights and usher their citizens onto the continent’s dense network of speedy, climate-friendly trains. They may have some more work to do as the world’s economic elite gathers in Davos, Switzerland, next week.

Private jet flights to nearby airports nearly doubled in the week of last year’s conference, according to an analysis from Greenpeace released Thursday.

The analysis found that private jet flights were up 93 percent during the week in late May of the 2022 World Economic Forum compared with the weeks before and after the conference, which includes sustainability and global warming as a major focus of discussions. Long-haul private jet flights of greater than 1,860 miles, or 3,000 kilometers, were especially high compared with the baseline, according to the Greenpeace analysis, which was produced by CE Delft, a Dutch environmental consultancy, using private jet flight data at the airports near the location of the conference in the Swiss Alps.

One of the flights in the analysis traveled just 13 miles, or 21 km — and eventually went onward to the French Riviera resort of Cannes.

The flights “could be so easily replaceable,” said Klara Schenk, lead transport campaigner at Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe. “Honestly, I could take my bike to go 21 kilometers.”

Since the analysis was based on publicly available flight data that does not include the purpose of the flight, the analysts were unable to say with certainty that all the flights were linked to the event — just that the volume of flights increased.

Based on the length of the flights and the types of jets, the group estimated the private flights emitted about 7,400 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, about as much in a week as 1,600 average U.S. cars emit in a year.

Unlike most areas of the United States, Western Europe has a dense railway network with fast trains that advocates say offer an alternative to flying, and policymakers have been trying to bolster their use with legislative muscle.

France has banned short-haul domestic flights when rail connections of 2½ hours or less are available, a prohibition that covers three routes for now but is expected to grow over time as more train service is added. (The measure doesn’t affect private jets, but top leaders have said they want to find ways to restrict those, too.) And starting this year, the Dutch government is capping the number of flights in and out of Schiphol airport, just outside Amsterdam, at 440,000 flights per year, 19 percent lower than the 2019 peak. Many countries are also increasing taxes on flights.

“As a political symbol, it’s a huge step forward,” Schenk said of France’s effort to reduce short-haul flights. “This opens up a way for governments to really use the climate crisis as a way to restrict certain forms of aviation.”

Davos administrators have been sensitive in the past to criticisms of the use of private jets around their gatherings, even writing multiple articles in 2019 highlighting what they said was a drop in private-jet flights by attendees. They say they invest cash every year to offset the emissions impact of the conference.

A record number of government and business leaders gather in Davos for the annual WEF meeting, with Ukraine and a global recession at the top of the agenda. (Video: Reuters)