A few days ago, the environmental protection organization Greenpeace drew attention to the fact that the carbon dioxide emissions of private jets per passenger and flight kilometer are significantly higher than those of scheduled airliners. There are calls for a ban on these machines, and in a way, at least in the Netherlands, they have been heard.

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport wants to gradually ban business jets by around 2025. However, the project is likely to be quite complicated, because the small machines rarely actually fly purely privately. Most of these are registered to commercial operators, so that they are formally commercial flight movements. Legally, there is not much difference between a charter flight operated on an Airbus A320 and a 'private flight' flown on a Learjet. In addition, there is the simple fact that Schiphol is a public airport with an obligation to operate. First of all, the legal basis must be created so that "private jets" can actually be turned away.

The largest airport in the Netherlands should therefore primarily have an interest in “making space”, because the government wants to further reduce the number of slots. The "business jet ban" means that there is more scope for scheduled and charter flights with larger aircraft. So what appears at first glance to be a well-intentioned environmental protection measure is actually calculated from a tough economic point of view. The traffic with the small jets will not disappear from the Netherlands, but only use other airfields for take-off and landing. To put it simply: The emissions are simply shifted to another location, but in no way eliminated.

Business jet frequent flyer Gewessler wants to campaign for restrictions

In Austria, Greenpeace's broadcast also caused discussions. For example, the Tiroler Tageszeitung dealt with how many flight movements there were in Innsbruck in the area of ​​irregular flights. This segment includes all general aviation, but also training operations. In the meantime, Austria's transport minister, who calls herself climate protection minister, also spoke up. Leonore Gewessler (Greens) wants to work at EU level to restrict flights with private jets. However, she is a regular user herself, which her spokesman cryptically describes as using an “on-demand airline”.

In Innsbruck, general aviation air traffic came to an almost complete standstill in 2020. In 2021 there were 35.000 movements again and in 2022 there were around 37.900 movements. A further increase is expected for the current year. Airport boss Marco Pernetta emphasizes to the Tiroler Tageszeitung that these are by no means exclusively business jets. Around 90 percent of the irregular flight movements are attributable to the instruction and training operations of the local flight schools.