A millionaire says he’s decided to sell his jet over concerns about how the aircraft was impacting the environment.
Georgia businessman Stephen Prince told Insider that the experience of flying private was so addictive that he compared it to using cocaine. “Don’t do it unless you’re ready to get addicted to it,” he told the outlet. “Because it is absolutely addictive.”
But upon learning about the environmental impact of jets, Prince—who made most of his fortune through his ownership of National Business Products, which prints plastic business cards—told Insider he decided to sell his Cessna 650, which burns through about 241 gallons of fuel per hour.
“I get on my plane and I’ll spew ten times as much carbon into the atmosphere as I do when I get on a first-class flight on Delta or American Airlines,” he told the outlet. “It’s just unconscionable — It’s incredibly selfish.”
It’s a major turnaround for someone who’d previously owned part or all of three private aircraft. He bought his first jet—a Mitsubishi MU-2—with a friend, but due to scheduling conflicts the pair encountered, he purchased a Cessna 560. Now, he’s the sole owner of a twelve-seat Cessna 650, which he says will be his last.
The news will be welcome to environmental activists, who in recent years have campaigned to get ultra-high-net-worth people to stop using private flights altogether. “The median net worth of a full and fractional private jet owner is $190 million and $140 million respectively,” according to a study recently published by left-leaning think tank Patriotic Millionaires and the Institute for Policy Studies.
Another 2021 study from the European nongovernmental organization Transport & Energy found that just one percent of people in the world produce 50 percent of global aviation emissions. Robb Report has also reported on studies that revealed how flying private can produce eight times more emissions per person than on commercial carriers, and that private aviation has contributed 37.1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
A group of business-aviation leaders have committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, Robb Report has reported.
