Boris Johnson condemned for using private 335-seat jet for US trip: 'A fundamental lack of understanding'

The prime minister’s decision to fly to and from New York on an RAF wide-bodied Airbus jet has been deplored by climate campaigners.

Boris Johnson is flying back from the US on the Voyager jet – an Airbus A330 that, in civilian configuration, can carry 335 passengers. The Voyager is instead fitted with 58 business-class seats and 100 economy seats.

Shortly after the prime minister boarded his outbound private flight to New York, the Committee on Climate Change warned that pollutants from aviation “warm the climate and approximately double the historic warming effect of CO2 alone”.

The independent committee called for “carbon pricing, a frequent flyer levy [and] fiscal measures to ensure aviation is not undertaxed compared to other transport sectors”.

After his speech to the United Nations, the prime minister boarded the aircraft to fly back to Britain. He landed at around 10am – an hour before the last British Airways flight on Tuesday night from JFK airport to Heathrow.

Anna Hughes, director of Flight Free UK, said: “Putting an A330 plane across the Atlantic uses around 30 tonnes of jet fuel.

“For one person’s team to be responsible for such an enormous amount of resulting greenhouse gasses is not only dangerous in terms of global heating, it shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the scale of the challenge that we face.

“While security considerations for the Prime Minister are undoubtedly different to civilians, our ecological system doesn’t make the same distinction.

“Many politicians acknowledge that climate change is not a single or a side issue, it is the pervading issue of our time. For our prime minister to make the same acknowledgment, and act on it, would go a long way in addressing the climate crisis.”

The RAF says the Voyager “can operate as a passenger aircraft in much the same way as a civilian airliner, but delivering personnel safely into theatre thanks to its defensive aids suite”.

The prime minister was travelling between the two cities connected by the world’s busiest intercontinental air route – linking New York JFK with London Heathrow.

Going east, the first departure is before 8am, the last at 11pm. In between, there are more than 20 flights each way on four different airlines – with dozens more options between other New York and London airports.

No 10 said that all seats on the Mr Johnson's flight were occupied in both directions, and that it is customary for prime ministers to use the jet for long-haul flights.

Officials say it is more efficient and cost effective than commercial aviation, and that the government makes a payment to offset all RAF prime ministerial flights.

Theresa May chose the same mode of transport to travel to the UN General Assembly in 2018, at a cost to the taxpayer of £143,000.

The former prime minister’s most expensive trip was to Buenos Aires for the G20 summit in November 2018, at a cost of almost half a million pounds.