Davos private jet arrivals soar by 170 per cent despite free trains

As the World Economic Forum kicks off in Davos, world leaders, CEOs and business leaders have descended on Switzerland in their hundreds. But how did these high-flyers get there?

The World Economic Forum (WEF) urged its delegates to consider more sustainable travel this year. They made it free to travel there by train and provided snow grips for shoes to encourage attendees to walk rather than drive around the conference.

But did delegates listen and choose a more sustainable transport solution for Davos?

How many private jets flew into Davos in 2025?

According to data from flight tracking website Flightradar24, private jet activity at airports around Davos was significantly elevated over the past couple of days.

At Zurich, the nearest large airport to Davos, 54 private jets landed on Monday, an increase of 170 per cent compared to the average for the past week.

A spokesperson for Zurich Airport told Euronews Green, “Immediately before and during the WEF, we record around 1,000 additional flight movements. These may be business jets, state aircraft or helicopter flights.”

Other airports frequented by Davos delegates include Saint Moritz, Friedrichshafen and St. Gallen-Alternheim. All three had higher-than-usual private jet activity on Monday, with Friedrichshafen seeing 33 per cent more jets than the average.

At Zurich, the longest private jet flight arrived at lunchtime on Monday from Kailua-Kona in Hawaii. Operated by charter firm NetJets, the €72 million Bombardier Global 7500 flew for 14 hours and 40 minutes to cover the 12,404 km to reach Zurich.

Other very long flights arrived from California, Seattle and Beijing, although we can’t say for sure if their passengers were heading for Davos.

Several flights were under 500 km, including one operated by FAI rent-a-jet from Milan, which flew for only 204 km to reach the airport. 

Two other flights from Milan, one from Genoa and two from Paris also landed in Zurich on Monday, all covering less than 500 km.

It’s impossible to say which flights carried delegates as most were operated by charter companies including FlexFlight, VistaJet and NetJets. However, some officials used their governmental aircraft, making it easier to identify where they were from.

Representatives of the Libyan government arrived on 5A-LBY, an Embraer Legacy 600. The Iraqi government and Polish government both chose huge Boeing 737s to fly into Switzerland, aircraft intended for 160+ people but probably only carrying a handful.

Reports from on the ground point out that the damage doesn’t always end when the aircraft touches down. Many delegates were seen getting into helicopters to take them from private airports to Davos, adding to the emissions linked to this conference.

On Monday, Greenpeace activists blocked access to Davos Lago heliport, calling for “reforms that will allow for fair taxation on the wealth of the world’s super-rich.”

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Greenpeace was busy again today. Two activists entered the main congress hall and dropped a banner reading “Tax the Super-rich! Fund a Just and Green Future.”

“The spike in private jet travel to Davos again this year – despite the WEF stepping up its efforts to get participants to choose more energy-efficient ways to arrive – means the WEF needs to visibly seize the initiative while leaders are in the room, says Denise Auclair, head of NGO Transport and Environment’s Travel Smart Campaign.  

“Action on private jets and sustainable travel should be put directly on the Forum’s agenda this week. The WEF needs to prove that rather than being a contributor to skyrocketing private jet travel emissions, it can kick-start solutions so that Davos leads by example.”

Why aren’t companies reducing private jet travel?

For business leaders and politicians, time is often cited as the reason for not taking a train. The swifter arrival of private jets is seen as a positive, as they’ll have more time at both ends to continue working.

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While that argument holds some water for far-away delegates arriving from Hawaii or the USA, there’s always the option of a commercial flight. According to Transport and Environment, an executive flying from the US to Switzerland could save 87 per cent of their carbon emissions by taking a public flight.

On short journeys, the excuse becomes even weaker. Travelling from Milan, for example, takes around an hour on a private jet and three hours and 12 minutes by train. But trains have large tables and onboard WiFi, making it easy to work during the trip.

Transport and Environment contacted around 100 companies known for their use of private jet travel to request they commit to avoiding flying private to Davos. Specifically, they asked the companies to travel by rail within Europe or to consider sending representatives based in locations accessible by train instead of from overseas.

Only two companies responded with a positive commitment to avoid private jet travel. The CEO of Saint-Gobain, a French manufacturing giant, said he would travel by train to Davos. KPMG, one of the ‘big four’ accounting groups, said their delegates would use commercial flights and rail to get there.

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In an open letter, several environmental NGOs called for a push on sustainable travel for Davos 2025. 

“Using a private jet is emblematic of the global inequality of resources and efforts to address planetary threats,” the letter reads. “Any private jet going to Davos sends the message that large global companies, with all their means and power to lead by example, lack the real will and responsibility to make simple changes to help keep warming below 1.5 degrees.”

“Do these executives really want to see their company’s reputation linked to this unsustainable, unequal and ultra-expensive means of transport?” questions Auclair. “They should instead follow the example of leading companies who are avoiding private jets and seizing the opportunity of Davos to show the way towards energy-efficient travel”.

How much environmental damage do private jets cause?

Private jets are the most polluting means of transport per passenger kilometre. Despite the push for sustainable alternatives, Sweden’s Linnaeus University found that emissions from private jets increased 46 per cent between 2019 and 2023.

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“There are a lot of people using these aircraft as taxis, where you cover whatever distance by aircraft simply because it’s more convenient,”  Professor Stefan Gossling from Linnaeus University told the BBC. “If somebody’s flight emits in one hour as much as an average human being emits in a year – just to watch a soccer game – then perhaps it shows those people think they are outside the standards that we have as a global community.”

In 2023, private jets produced 15.6 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of driving almost 40 billion miles in a petrol car. While it’s not a significant contributor to global emissions (1.8 per cent), the fact it’s produced by such a small number of people is significant.

To put it in perspective, aviation as a whole is responsible for approximately four per cent of the annual global CO2 emissions.

Between 2019 and 2023, almost half of the 19 million private jet trips studied covered short distances of less than 500 km.

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A 2021 report from the European Federation for Transport and Environment found that private jets are five to 14 times more polluting per passenger than commercial flights and 50 times more polluting than trains.

There are also non-CO2 emissions to consider as well, which are woefully under-reported by private jet companies and users. 

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), “Emissions from burning jet fuel consist of carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapour (H2O), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx), carbon monoxide (CO), soot (PM 2.5), unburned hydrocarbons (UHC), aerosols, and traces of hydroxyl compounds (-OH).”

Most of these chemical nasties are released into the atmosphere at very high altitudes, usually some eight to 13 km above mean sea level. Private jets fly higher than commercial traffic, so deposit these compounds high in the atmosphere.

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The consequences of these emissions are not well known, although a study by Lee et. al. in 2021 suggested the impact of non-CO2 emissions could be four times as great as CO2 alone. 

All the evidence points to positive outcomes from reducing private jet travel. But while the world’s leaders continue to value their time more than our future, it seems nothing will change.