Rahul SomvanshiElon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and second richest person in the world, reportedly utilized his private jet 134 times in 2022, according to a tweet from a Twitter account that tracks his travel. Despite Musk’s public advocacy for sustainable transportation and electric vehicles, it appears that he frequently chooses to fly on his private plane for personal travel, including trips to attend soccer games such as the recent FIFA World Cup. This will undoubtedly will have a heavy carbon cost and Musk might have developed a flying habit.
A tweet compiled in 2022 revealed that Elon Musk, despite being a proponent of sustainability, traveled to eight countries on his private jet during a year when many were struggling with the effects of COVID-19 and job loss in the tech industry. The Twitter account also provided information on the environmental impact of these flights, estimating that 178,686 gallons of fuel were used and 1,895 tons of CO2 were emitted. This is equivalent to the emissions produced by building 225 homes or 375 cars in a year. When compared to more eco-conscious European households, Musk’s travel exceeded the annual emissions of over 170 households, taking into account heating and power consumption during the winter.
Elon Musk’s private jet was utilized for a variety of flights in 2022, ranging from a 12-hour journey from Greece to Austin, Texas to a quick six-minute trip likely used for maintenance or other non-passenger related purposes. The majority of his flights were between California and Texas, where his businesses, including his recent acquisition of the social media platform Twitter, are based.
The information about Elon Musk’s private jet travel is available on Twitter due to a new rule implemented by the social media platform, which prohibits the sharing of an individual’s live location. A snapshot of a year’s travel does not reveal the location of the person at the current moment.
Musk, who has had issues with his jet being tracked in the past, took action when he became CEO of Twitter and had the account @Elonjet suspended for revealing his location and putting his two-year-old son at risk. However, the account’s owner, Jack Sweeney, has returned to the platform with a new account that posts the whereabouts of the jet, but with a 24-hour delay.
A recent post from a Twitter account that tracks the movements of Elon Musk’s private jet may raise concerns among investors and the public. The data shows that Musk has not visited the Brownsville airport in over three months, which was just before his takeover of Twitter. After this date, the jet has been frequently traveling to San Francisco, a location it had not visited frequently before. This post suggests that the Twitter takeover may be negatively impacting not only Tesla but also Musk’s other venture, SpaceX. It raises questions on how much attention is Musk giving to his other ventures, as inferred from the private jet data.
