By GORDON GILBERT • Contributor - Accidents and Regulations
April 19, 2024

Carbon dioxide emissions of turbine business aircraft departing from U.S. airports are down 62 percent from 2005, meaning the industry appears to have already achieved its long-term goal of halving emissions by 2050 relative to 2005 levels—at least in the U.S. This is according to data from the Environmental Protect Agency’s (EPA) latest annual inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, released yesterday.

In 2022—the most current year for which EPA has data—turbine business aircraft accounted for 9.8 percent of the 231.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions of all turbine aircraft operations in the U.S. and just 1.3 percent of all transportation emissions in the U.S. These calculations apply to fuel purchased in the U.S. and used by aircraft taking off from U.S. airports.

Notably, the EPA data indicates that carbon emissions from U.S. business jets and turboprops fell 38 percent from 2019 to 2022, while at the same time business aircraft utilization climbed 22.6 percent. Per TraqPak data from Argus International, turbine business aircraft departures from U.S. airports rose from 4.02 million flight hours in 2019 to 4.93 million flight hours in 2022.