Examples of rough estimates of ‘bizjet’ emissions

Summary table

CO2 emissions per passenger from business jets compared with average emissions from commercial aircraft:

Citation X / Dassault Falcon 50EX / Commercial airline: premium / Commercial airline: economy
London to Lisbon / 845.712 kg CO2 / 761.25 kg CO2 / 141.73Kgof CO2 / (as for premium class)
London to New York / 2994.67 kg CO2 / 2695.53 kg CO2 / 760.22 kg CO2 / 380.11 kgof CO2

(Note that aviation’s impact on climate is in fact greater than that of CO2 alone so caution would be needed in comparing these figures with those from other transport modes)

How we arrived at these figures

1. The following stats for the Citation X are available from http://www.cessna.com/citation/citation-x/citation-x-weights.html :

Usable fuel capacity 5,865 kg

Fuel-full payload 621 kg

Range 5,686 km

5865 / 5686 = 1.03, so as a rough estimate it uses 1.03 kg fuel per km (this is based max range and max fuel load; don’t know how you’d find out actual average fuel used)

So for a journey from London to Lisbon…

Travelling 1564 km (using ICAO carbon calculator), carrying 6 passengers with baggage (“fuel-full payload” divided by industry standard for passenger weight including baggage – 100 kg), total fuel used per passenger would be 268.48 kg

1 kg kerosene emits 3.15 kg CO2 (See, for example, p 67 at http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/aviation/environmentalissues/ukairdemandandco2forecasts/airpassdemandfullreport.pdf.), so emissions per passenger would be 845.712 kg CO2

By way of comparison , according to the ICAO calculator, 1 person flying London to Lisbon (whether economy or first class) on a scheduled plane would ordinarily emit 141.73kgof CO2

Max range for the Citation X suggests it could just about make it to New York

5538 km on the Citation X carrying 6 passengers with baggage would use 950.69 kg fuel per passenger, emitting 2994.67 kg CO2.

Using the ICAO calculator, 1 passenger flying premier class to New York would generally emit 760.22 kg CO2 (or 380.11 kgof CO2 in economy class)

2. Stats for the Dassault Falcon 50EX, “built like a fighter to help bring out the best of your competitive spirit”, are from http://www.dassaultfalcon.com/aircraft/50ex/performance.jsp

Usable fuel capacity 15,520 lb (7039.75358 kg)

Max range 3,075 nm (5694.9 km) with 8 passengers

So fuel use per km can be estimated as 1.23615052 kg fuel per km

With 8 passengers, this means 0.154518815 kg fuel per passenger per km

Flying from London to Lisbon is, according to ICAO’s carbon calculator 1564 km. On the Dassault Falcon this means 241.667427 kg fuel per person

1 kg kerosene emits 3.15 kg CO2 (See, for example, p 67 at http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/aviation/environmentalissues/ukairdemandandco2forecasts/airpassdemandfullreport.pdf.), so emissions per passenger would be 761.25 kg CO2 for this journey

The ICAO calculator gives emissions for a business or economy seat on a commercial flight as 141.73Kgof CO2

For London to New York is a journey of 5538 km according to ICAO. Fuel use per passenger per km on the Falcon would be 855.725197 kg fuel person or 2695.53 kg CO2

On ICAO’s calculator on a similar commercial flight emissions would be around 760.22 kg CO2 (or 380.11 kgof CO2 in economy class).

Ratio of bizjet to commercial

From the above estimated emissions:

London to Lisbon Citation X 6.0

Dassault Falcon 50EX 5.4

London to New York Citation X 3.9 (premium)

“ 7.9 (economy)

Dassault Falcon 50EX 3.5 (premium)

“ 7.1 (economy)

From this very small sample it may be concluded that per-passenger emissions from bizjets are from about 3 to 8 times higher than commercial planes.

Cait Weston (amended Nic Ferriday) Dec 08