Activists Attach Large ‘End Private Jets’ Banner To Wellington Sign

9 July: Passengers flying into Wellington airport will now be greeted with a large sign reading “End private jets,” thanks to activists with climate justice organisation 350 Aotearoa. The group says uber-rich private jet passengers are not paying their fare share, and are calling on airports around the country to put an end to the use of private jets.

“We took action today to highlight the disparity between the uber-rich’s private jets, and the billions of people suffering globally from record-shattering heat waves, increasingly severe wildfires and flooding from superstorms and rising seas,” says 350 spokesperson Julian Warmington.

“Private jet flights are around 15 times more polluting, per passenger, than commercial flights. Over the last decade, the number of private jet flights into New Zealand has more than doubled. As people around the world struggle to put food on the table, the uber rich clink champagne glasses across the sky, at the expense of our fragile, shared climate.”

“Local airports have been rolling out the red carpet in private jet terminals for the ultra-rich for far too long. It’s a slap in the face for people doing it tough,” says Warmington.

“We need urgent action to cut all pollution, and it makes sense to start with the most wasteful and least beneficial emissions.”

“Each private jet flight pays just a third of the government (civil aviation) fees that commercial flights pay.. I pay GST when taking the train to Kāpiti, while the wealthy elite flying to Fiji don’t pay GST at all,” says Warmington.

“The climate crisis is not in transit, it’s arrived at the gate. While New Zealanders struggle with the cost of living and our future goes up in smoke, the ultra-rich fly around in private jets, burning the climate while the rest of us suffer. It’s time to end the private jets that are killing the climate we all call home,” Warmington says.

Notes
New Zealand’s aviation sector is one of our fastest-growing sources of emissions, rising 116% from 1990 to 2019. Globally, aviation produces nearly 3% of all carbon emissions, but Aotearoa’s domestic aviation emissions alone are 12% of our climate change contribution. And New Zealand’s international aviation emissions still aren’t even included within the emissions trading scheme (ETS) yet. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03036758.2023.2212174/

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