Drake defends his short private jet flights – by saying plane was empty

The rapper’s explanation made his plane’s short hop flights even more of a climate disaster, critics pointed out

Oliver Milman in New York
Fri 29 Jul 2022 11.50 EDT

Drake, the rapper, has attempted to defend his use of a large private plane for a series of flights that lasted less than 20 minutes – by revealing that the aircraft was being moved to a storage location with no passengers on board.

The Canadian music star and several other celebrities, including the socialite and business owner Kylie Jenner, have recently been attacked online for using their private jets for short journeys that could easily be undertaken by car or public transport.

Over the past six weeks, Drake’s personal Boeing 767 has taken a seven-minute flight, a 12-minute flight and a 14-minute flight, all between Toronto and nearby Hamilton.

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Private jets contribute in a relatively small but significant way to the climate crisis, emitting more than 33m tonnes of greenhouse gases, more than the country of Denmark, each year.

Because they carry so few people they are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes, per passenger, and 50 times more polluting than trains, researchers have found.

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