Austria, France, Netherlands push for tighter grip on EU private jet flight rules

Austria, France and the Netherlands are calling for tighter regulation of fuel-guzzling private jet flights, the three said in a letter sent to the European Commission.

The letter was sent on the initiative of the environment ministry.

“Private jet flights are a hobby of the super-rich. But it cannot be that we all pay for them. Because every flight on a private jet is particularly damaging to our climate,” Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) stressed, APA reported.

The European Union jointly decided that air transport in the EU should also become climate-neutral by 2050.

In addition, Austria has put the issue of equity in private jet flights on the agenda of the upcoming meeting of transport ministers on 1 June.

According to an analysis published by the research institute CE Delft at the end of March, the number of private flights in Europe increased by 64% to 572,806 last year, DPA reported.

In Austria, 227 active private aircraft are currently registered, according to a Greenpeace report that investigated the Austrian private jet industry.

In the past four years, these caused a total of at least 407,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, flew around 96 million kilometres and thus orbited the earth 2,399 times, the NGO said in a statement.

Recently, Greenpeace Austria also sounded the alarm over the Federal Environment Agency’s latest inventory report, which outlines scenarios based on greenhouse gas development until 2030.

The Austrian government has set itself the goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2040 but according to the report, it will only be able to reduce its carbon emissions by 30% by 2050 compared to 1990 and is thus expected to even miss the less ambitious EU targets aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050.

(Chiara Swaton | EURACTIV.de)