Climate activists are urging film stars to fly financial system or take the prepare to Cannes after saying personal jets burned two hundreds of thousands of liters of kerosene getting them to the movie pageant final yr.
“The rich and famous burning through scarce fuel to get to a film festival isn’t just tone deaf, it’s obscene,” stated former Air France pilot Anthony Viaux, one in all a number of to have signed as much as the decision.
With the battle within the Middle East sparking a world gas disaster, analysis by environmental group Transport and Environment (T&E) stated 750 personal jet flights ferried A-listers and Hollywood executives to the world’s greatest movie pageant final yr.
“That’s equivalent to what 14,000 passengers would have consumed flying between Paris and Athens,” the group’s head of aviation, Jerome du Boucher, informed AFP.
Former personal jet pilot Katie Thompson stated stars ought to comply with the instance of “Narcos” actor Pedro Pascal and fly financial system class to Cannes.
“Last year Pedro Pascal flew to Cannes in an economy seat. There’s no reason the rest of them can’t do the same, or take the train where possible,” she stated.
De Boucher stated they have been lobbying European governments to ban personal jets.
“In a context of climate crisis and oil shock, it seems absolutely obvious that this kerosene should be reserved for more essential uses at a time when we’re facing fuel shortages,” he stated.
T&E say that two-thirds of personal jets are exempt from carbon taxes beneath present EU guidelines, amid concern of reprisals from the Trump administration if the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is expanded to incorporate them.
Normal airline passengers throughout the bloc need to pay the taxes whereas the tremendous wealthy escape them, they stated.
Even some millionaires are calling for change.
Investor Julia Davies, co-founder of Patriotic Millionaires UK, stated “private jets are a luxury only the very wealthiest few can afford, yet most of these flights are still not subject to fuel or carbon taxes — taxes the majority of people pay every day as they travel to work.”
Countries internationally have been hit by gas rationing as Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz heads in direction of it fourth month after the United States and Israel attacked Tehran.
More than 500 flights have already been cancelled in France alone, du Boucher added, with as much as 20 million passengers prone to be affected by disruption in Germany over the summer season vacation interval.
“This oil crisis is an opportunity to put the question of private jet use on the table,” De Boucher stated.
“The EU needs to close the loopholes to make sure that all private jets and international flights (outside the EU) are subject to carbon taxes in future,” stated veteran pilot Viaux. “EU policymakers shouldn’t let Trump’s administration dictate the rule.”
“This oil crisis is an opportunity to put the question of private jet use on the table,” De Boucher stated.
He stated the group’s analysis confirmed that if everybody taking personal jets for the Cannes Film Festival used industrial ones, the pageant might go 40 p.c of the way in which in direction of its CO2 emissions discount goal for 2030.
© 2026 AFP