Celebrities have recently been facing a lot of criticism because of their short private jet trips. Earlier this month, Kylie Jenner came under fire for a 17-minute private jet flight from Camarillo to Van Nuys. The flight shaved off only about 30 minutes of travel time, according to Google maps. Experts estimate that an hour of flight time aboard a private jet introduces about two tonnes (also known as metric tons) of carbon dioxide into the air, meaning Jenner’s flight could’ve produced about a half tonne, or 500 kilograms, of CO2 during its brief flight. The average person, meanwhile, produces around 8 tonnes of CO2 — per year. This week the marketing and data analysis company Yard used data from CelebJets to rank the highest polluting planes that are owned by celebrities. And despite the headlines regarding Kylie’s flying habits, she didn’t even crack the top 10.
1. Taylor Swift
The pop star’s PJ is the top CO2 emitting plane that CelebJets and Yard tracked.
The study reported a “total of 170 flights on her private jet since January.” In total Taylor has amassed a vast 22,923 minutes in the air – 15.9 days. Quite a large amount considering that she is not currently touring.
The star’s reps released a statement to Rolling Stone that reads: “Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals … To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.”
Still, the plane itself tops the list among celebrities.
2. Floyd Mayweather
The retired boxer came in second for the first time in his career. His shortest flight of 2022 was a 10-minute flight that landed in Las Vegas. Mayweather has taken 177 private jet flights this year, producing 7,076.8 tonnes of CO2, according to Yard.
3. Jay-Z
Jay-Z has taken 136 flights in his private jet which has emitted 6,981.3 tonnes of CO2, according to Yard. Jay-Z, like Swift, is not currently on tour.
The rapper, however, has a little bit of leeway. The jet was purchased by Puma, the shoe company of which Jay-Z is the creative director. The jet is treated as a perk for athletes signed to the Puma brand, according to Rolling Stone.
4. Alex Rodriguez
Baseball legend-turned-business mogul A-Rod has taken more than 100 flights so far this year. The average flight time is about 80 minutes. His flights this year have introduced more than 700 times as much CO2 as the average person will produce all year.
5. Blake Shelton
6. Steven Spielberg
7. Kim Kardashian
Kim is the top Kardashian in ranking. Her flights (or at least, her plane’s flights) have emitted 4,268.5 tonnes of carbon emissions over 57 flights this year. That’s 609.8 times more than the average person emits in a year, according to the study.
8. Mark Wahlberg
9. Oprah Winfrey
The Yard reported, “Winfrey’s $75 million private jet travels for an average of 81.13 minutes at a time with an average journey length of 101.26 miles.” One of her shortest flights was from Van Nuys to Santa Barbara, where she owns a home in Montecito. That flight was a little more than 15 minutes and produced the equivalent of a half tonne of CO2.
10. Travis Scott
It’s unclear how many times Travis Scott and Kylie have flown together, but earlier this month Jenner was criticized for sharing a photo of the couple standing on the tarmac outside their private jets with the caption: “you wanna take mine or yours?”
Scott is guilty of averaging the shortest flights of everyone on the top-10 list. His flights in 2022 average fewer than eight miles per trip.
To read more about the list and the criteria used to determine the ranking, visit the report on Yard’s website.
