By Chuck Collins, OtherWords.org
The big Trump-GOP budget that passed Congress last month will slash trillions in taxes for billionaires and centi-millionaires while devastating services like Medicaid. Among those tax breaks for the ultra rich is a giveaway to the private jet lobby, which will force the rest of us subsidize the most polluting form of transportation on the planet.
The recently passed “Big Beautiful Bill” — really a Big Ugly Grift — includes a massive tax subsidy for private jet buyers. Instead of corporations deducting the purchase of their jets over several years of their useful life, the bill includes 100% “bonus depreciation” in the year of purchase.
For example, a corporation purchasing a $50 million private jet could potentially deduct the entire $50 million from their taxes in the year of the purchase, rather than spreading the deduction over many years. This amounts to a massive taxpayer subsidy, as ordinary taxpayers pick up the tab for the private jet industry and billionaire high flyers.
From our IPS research on private jets, we know that regular taxpayers and commercial air travelers subsidize the high-flying excess of private jet owners. In the U.S., private jets use 7% of the airspace but only contribute 0.6% of the cost of using it.
As wealth has concentrated into the vaults of the ultra-wealthy, the demand for private jets is surging. Every billionaire appears to need one or two. As a result, private jets are one of the largest and fastest-growing sources of air and climate pollution. In 2023, private jets emitted 19.5 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, a 25% increase over 2013 levels.
A new study, from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), analyzed global private jet pollution and emissions for 2023. They found that private jets, which account for about 4% of all global aviation, together emitted more greenhouse gasses than all flights departing from Heathrow Airport, the busiest airport in Europe.
ICCT, the researchers best known for uncovering the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal, has developed the first global mapping of private jet air and climate pollution.
The study found that private jet activity and emissions are overwhelmingly concentrated in the U.S. In 2023, private jets departing U.S. airports accounted for 65% of flights and 55% of all private jet emissions globally. Eighteen of the 20 most polluting airports are based in the United States. That includes Hanscom Field outside of Boston, the locus of a huge campaign to block private jet hangar expansion.
Private jet travel originating in Florida and Texas generated more private jet operations and emissions than the entire European Union combined, according to the ICCT study. A private jet emits about 810 tons of greenhouse gasses in a typical year, equivalent to 177 passenger cars or nine Class 8 heavy-duty trucks.
Many private jet flights are short hops, less than 560 miles and two hours, and the majority are for recreational purposes, not for business meetings. In France, there are proposals to ban short hop flights, especially when other transportation options exist.
Instead of subsidizing private jets through the tax code, we should tax private jet fuels to ensure they reflect their real environmental costs. “As wealth inequality explodes globally, policymakers have begun to ask why private jet taxes are so low,” said Dan Rutherford, co-author of the ICCT report. “Given the slow pace of technological progress, it’s reasonable to charge ultrawealthy travelers more for their pollution.”
A tax on jet fuel could generate substantial revenue for high-speed rail and other decarbonization priorities. A global private jet fuel tax, modeled after Sen. Ed Markey’s U.S. private jet fuel tax, could generate $3 trillion a year to offset the harms of private jet excess.
Subsidizing more private jets on a warming planet is reckless and indefensible. As Rutherford observes, “Private jets are like the canary in the coal mine here for a hyper unequal warming world.” Including tax breaks in the new tax bill reveals the pro-billionaire bias of Congress.
Chuck Collins directs the Program on Inequality and co-edits Inequality.org at the Institute for Policy Studies. His forthcoming book is “Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Planet.” This op-ed was published by Inequality.org and distributed for syndication by OtherWords.org. Banner photo: A private jet at an airport (iStock image).
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