Boss of luxury airline firm claims pets produce three times more pollution than private flights

The boss of a luxury airline has claimed that pets can cause as much pollution as private jets, according to reports.

Patrick Hansen, CEO of Luxaviation based in Luxembourg, told the Financial times that one of his company’s customers produces about 2.1 tons of CO2 per year, or about as much as three cats – before a spokesperson corrected the statement by saying he meant three dogs.

Speaking at the FT’s Business of Luxury summit in Monaco, he said private flights “are not going away because they are doing the rich a favour.”

He reportedly said he was aware of the urgent need to limit the industry’s carbon footprint, but said the data needed to be put into perspective.

Mr Hansen said he was referring to data in a book by Mike Berners-Lee – ‘How Bad are Bananas’ – which stated that a cat kept as a pet produces 310kg of CO2 emissions per year, and a dog around 700kg , although the British author was reportedly ‘surprised and disappointed to learn that data from my book is being used to defend Luxaviation’s bogus eco-claims’.

The boss of a luxury airline has claimed that pets can cause as much pollution as private flights (stock image)

Aviation expert Justin Albertynas told MailOnline: “The director’s statement about the release of three dogs should be taken with caution.”

RatePunk’s CEO said: ‘It is crucial to recognize that private jets are often associated with luxury and convenience, and that they target a small segment of the population.

The private jet industry as a whole is responsible for significant CO2 emissions due to the high fuel consumption and inefficient engines of these aircraft. Private jets are known to emit significantly higher amounts of greenhouse gases per passenger mile compared to commercial airlines.

‘According to a study by Transport & Milieu, private jets are five to fourteen times more polluting than commercial aircraft (counted per passenger).

“While pets contribute to the environmental impact, their individual carbon footprint is relatively small by comparison.”

Energy Secretary Grant Shapps has suggested that the near-term solution to private jet emissions is sustainable jet fuel.

SNP MP Deidre Brock (Edinburgh North and Leith) said: ‘Private jets have made headlines describing them as incredibly carbon intensive.

“The recent report commissioned by the Department for Transport suggests that the carbon footprint of private jets in the UK is comparable to that of 200,000 people taking a return flight to Hong Kong, and calls for the number of private jet flights to be halved.”

Mr Hansen said he was referring to data in a book by Mike Berners-Lee – ‘How Bad are Bananas’ – which stated that a pet cat is responsible for 310kg of CO2 emissions per year, and a dog for about 700 kg ( stock image)

Mr Shapps said: ‘Private jets are in the headlines almost as often as motorhomes.

‘The reality is that to solve this problem we need sustainable jet fuel in the short term. And that’s why the UK has one of the world’s leading targets of 10% SAF (sustainable jet fuel) in our jet energy mix in just six and a half years.”

This comes after research commissioned by Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe in March found that the number of private jet flights in Europe increased by 64 percent last year and that carbon dioxide emissions from private flights more than doubled.

Greenpeace is calling on the EU and national governments to ban private jets as part of a plan to tackle the climate crisis in a more equitable way.

The study, conducted by Dutch environmental consultancy CE Delft, found that European private jet traffic has increased dramatically over the past three years. The number has increased from 118,756 private flights in 2020 to 350,078 in 2021 and 572,806 in 2022, with total emissions of more than 5.3 million tons of CO2.

The countries with the most private jet flights in Europe in 2022 were France, the UK and Germany.

The three most popular private jet destinations in Europe were Nice (Côte d’Azur), Paris and Geneva.

The busiest private jet route in Europe last year was Paris-London, with an average of nine private flights a day between those cities.

Thomas Gelin, Greenpeace’s EU transport campaigner, said when the findings were published: ‘Vulnerable people are on the front lines of climate destruction and are the ones forced into poverty by raising fuel prices, but have done the least to cause these crises. It is hugely unfair that rich people can destroy the climate in this way, polluting more in just one flight than driving a car for 14,000 miles. Pollution for wasteful luxury must disappear first, we need a ban on private jets.’

One hundred climate activists supporting Greenpeace, Stay Grounded, Extinction Rebellion, Scientist Rebellion and other climate movement groups from 17 countries disrupted Europe’s largest private jet sales exhibition, the annual European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, yesterday, demanding a ban on private jets.

The action followed a series of protests against private jets, including at Schiphol and actions in the context of the Make Them Pay campaign in recent months.

Protesters stuck giant tobacco-style health warning labels on the jets, marking them as toxic and warning that “private jets are burning our future,” “killing our planet,” and “fuel inequality.”