With growing concerns about sustainability and eco-friendliness, aviation is a very visible target. Can private jet charter services be eco-friendly? The answer is, yes, they can. Responsible private jet operators are doing all they can to minimize their footprint. Today we will show you how this is being achieved.
Can Private Jets Be Eco-Friendly?
Private jets can be eco-friendly. In fact, there are many ways in which private jets can be a better solution than traveling via regular commercial means. Private jets can offer point-to-point travel with more direct routings. Often there are initiatives launched by companies to minimize their impact on the environment. Sun Air Jets, for example, provides sustainable aviation fuel, carbon offsetting, and its Camarillo FBO is certified as a Green Aviation Business with Tier 1 status by the National Air Transportation Association (NATA)
Here’s how private jet charter services can be eco-friendly.
Private Aviation Uses Greener Fuel
While there has never been a greater emphasis on the world’s dwindling resources, aviation may have found an answer that is both environmentally friendly and sustainable.
Many private jet operators have been early adopters of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Whereas traditional aviation fuel is produced from refined fossil fuels, SAF can be created both from organic matter and by recycling and processing existing man-made materials.
This step alone reduces carbon emissions by up to 23%. It isn’t just the use of fuels in engines that creates a carbon footprint. The extraction, refinement, and logistics involved in procuring fossil fuels all add up.
This can be reduced by utilizing SAF as a more ethical choice.
Noise Reduction Policies
Environmental impacts are not purely about emissions. How aircraft affect the surrounding areas in other ways also needs to be borne in mind.
Responsible Private Jet Operators, such as Sun Air Jets, subscribe to schemes like the “Quieter Nights Program”. All operational staff are briefed on noise reduction procedures to ensure that the aviation business can coexist in harmony with its residential neighbors.
This doesn’t just include the aircraft themselves. It can also be promoted among other areas of the aircraft’s operation, including avoiding using loud machinery at night, delaying noisy maintenance procedures after a certain time, and showing general consideration to those who live around airports.
Green Hangars
Encouraging sustainability involves taking many small steps to achieve a great end result. Making all areas of a business more eco-friendly can yield fantastic results.
Green hangarage is a way that this has been achieved by private jet charter services.
While hangars occupy a large area, this makes the ideal place to establish renewable energy sources. Sun Air Jets presently has two green hangars fitted with an expansive solar rooftop system capable of generating a vast amount of solar-powered renewable electricity.
Carbon Offsetting
At present, due to current limitations in technology, it isn’t possible to avoid some emissions in aviation. However, there are ways that we can strive to minimize and negate these emissions to smaller levels.
Carbon offsetting is a way this can be realized.
Carbon neutral is a fairly easy term to understand. While we all await a time when no carbon emissions are created, carbon neutrality is an eco-friendly policy that eco-conscious operators should strive to achieve.
It is essentially a balance.
In short, it means that for every ton of CO2 released into the atmosphere, efforts are made elsewhere to remove a ton of carbon from the atmosphere. The end result is that there has been no carbon added to the ecosystem.
Carbon offsetting works by a company funding green ventures elsewhere that seek to reduce the carbon produced by the business’s day-to-day running. Instead of adding to the carbon, responsible companies will promote technologies and strategies, minimizing the impact. Examples of this could include: –
- The construction of renewable power sources such as wind energy or hydroelectric energy.
- Methane digestion technology
- Landfill methane flaring
- Tree planting and forestry
For each ton produced by a private jet operator, there will be a technology that reduces that ton to a neutral amount elsewhere. Companies like Terrapass even have the functionality to display how many tons aviation companies produce and how much they have offset against their carbon output.
Point to Point Travel
One of the benefits of flying private is that the aircraft operates at higher levels than most commercial airline traffic. As a result, they can take more direct routes, reducing the overall fuel burned on the route.
While there is no escaping the fact that combustion-powered jet engines produce emissions, private jets can minimize their total output by taking shorter routes and flying direct.
Another advantage can be observed by flying point to point.
Due to the size of the aircraft involved, private aircraft can often land in much smaller, more localized airports. The result of this ability is that passengers can arrive closer to their final destination, meaning smaller reliance on less efficient means of transport, such as a long drive, following arrival.
Fewer Delays
Again due to the fact that smaller jets can operate into airports that bigger aircraft can’t access. There is less time spent waiting on the ground at runway holding points with engines going.
As a general rule, there is very little time spent between actually boarding and being on the way to your destination when flying private.
Also, because private jets aren’t bound by any set flying schedule, this also means that they can operate at off-peak times, avoiding air traffic congestion minimizing the total time that their engines are running.
Sun Air Jets is committed to ensuring that its operation is as eco-friendly as possible. The future of flying private lies in being as environmentally conscious as possible. All of the policies and practices you have read about above have been adopted by Sun Air Jets to minimize our environmental impact and ensure the sustainability of our business. To learn more about Sun Air Jets’ sustainable aviation policies, we have a dedicated section on our website. You can also read more about our carbon offsetting programs and what we have achieved here.