Drake Responds After Being Grilled for His Private Plane's 18-Minute Flight
Drake addressed environmentalists' criticism over an alleged 14-minute flight he took on his $200 million Air Drake plane. Reports about the short flight his Boeing 767 took from Toronto to Hamilton in Ontario came as part of a July 21 exposé by The Guardian. Also listed were Kylie Jenner, Floyd Mayweather, Kim Kardashian, and Mark Wahlberg for their brief trips on luxury aircraft despite mounting climate concerns.
In response to the uproar, the Canadian artist took to Real Toronto Newz's Instagram comments to claim that the plane was empty at the time and the flight was just to return the aircraft to its hangar for routine maintenance and cleaning."This is just them moving planes to whatever airport they are being stored at for anyone who was interested in the logistics," he wrote. "Nobody takes that flight."
Despite Drake's explanation of why the plane was in the air for a short time, environmentalists have continued criticizing him since The Guardian article listed him as the worst offender for emitting CO2. The outlet also interviewed Jack Sweeney for the piece, a University of Central Florida student who analyzes data from a company that keeps track of aircraft transponders for his Celebrity Jets Twitter account.
Sweeney also runs a similar account that tracks the private jet of Tesla's multi-billionaire CEO Elon Musk. However, he thinks Musk is not entirely to blame for his quick trips."With Elon he's just trying to be as quick as possible and efficient for work, but someone like Kim Kardashian (who has taken long and short private jet flights) is posting 'Kim Air' and flexing and all that," Sweeney said.
According to a 2016 study, private jets are responsible for about 4% of all aviation emissions. The airline industry has emphasized that flying contributes to only a small fraction of global warming emissions.
Private aircraft still emit more than 33 million tons of greenhouse gases, more than the country of Denmark. According to a study, they also pollute five to 14 times more than commercial planes per passenger and 50 times more than trains.
"These startlingly short flights show the immense impact of the wealthy in overall aviation emissions," Scott Hochberg, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute, told The Guardian."The problem starts at the top with Kylie Jenner and other celebrities with private jets, which have a much larger impact than commercial aircraft on a per passenger basis. But it also includes many others, as the US constitutes the bulk of the wealthy elite that have the luxury of flying."