Taylor Swift will likely take her private plane from Tokyo to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl. But the jet comes with emissions – and criticism.
Taylor Swift is set to have a quick turnaround between her concert in Tokyo on Feb. 10 and the Super Bowl in Las Vegas on Feb. 11. But with a private jet, she will likely be able to get across the world in time for the game. The jet, however, comes with steep carbon dioxide emissions – and criticism.
In 2022, digital marketing team Yard published a report that exposed what it called the celebs with the worst private jet Co2 emissions, as revealed by the now-defunct Twitter account @CelebrityJets. Swift was at the top of the list.
Between January and July 2022, Swift's jet took 170 flights, totaling 22,923 minutes in the air, according to the compiled records. That equals 15.9 days. She wasn't touring that year and the average flight time was just 80 minutes, according to Yard. Her shortest flight was 36 minutes – from Missouri to Nashville.
The private jet's flight emissions equaled 8,293.54 tons – which is 1,184.8 times more than the average person's total annual emissions.
Other people on Yard's list: Floyd Mayweather, Jay-Z, Alex Rodriguez, Blake Shelton, Stephen Spielberg and Kim Kardashian.
The private jet patterns of Swift and other celebrities are made public by Federal Aviation Administration data. But it the data has been made even more readily available by college student Jack Sweeney, who ran the @CelebrityJets Twitter and continues to share celebrity private jet patterns on Instagram.
Sweeney, a junior at University of Central Florida, even has accounts on X that share information specifically on both Elon Musk and Swift's private jets. Both @ElonJetNextDay and @SwiftJetNextDay promise to share flight information 24 hours after each flight.
But the information shared by Sweeney constitutes as "stalking and harassing behavior," according to Swift's attorney, who threatened legal action against Sweeney, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Musk had previously taken legal action against Sweeney, saying the travel information shared on Twitter put his family at risk. Sweeney's original account, @ElonJet, was suspended by Twitter in 2022, according to BBC News.
Several high-profile figures have faced scrutiny for their private jet usage – and Sweeney's website, Ground Control, tracks several celebrities' travel, from Bill Gates to Kylie Jenner.
Both Gates and Swift have defended their private jet usage by arguing they offset the emissions. Gates said he supports clean technology and other sustainability initiatives, according to the Associated Press.
And in a statement to the AP, Swift's publicist said "Taylor purchased more than double the carbon credits needed to offset all tour travel" before her tour began this year. No further details were provided.
Flew from St Louis, Missouri, US to Cahokia/St Louis, Illinois, US 24 hours ago.
— Taylor Swift Jets (Tracking) (@SwiftJetNextDay) January 31, 2024
Apx. flt. time 26 Mins. pic.twitter.com/NzB3OyZj8o
CBS News has reached out to Swift's attorney and Sweeney and is awaiting response.
Sweeney's @SwiftJetNextDay account last shared an update about Swift's jet on Jan. 31, when it took a 26-minute flight from Missouri to Illinois and another 13-minute return flight.
The first flight alone released two tons of CO2 emissions and took 151 gallons – or 1,010 lbs – of fuel that costs $844, according to Sweeney's account.
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Caitlin O'Kane is a New York City journalist who works on the CBS News social media team as a senior manager of content and production. She writes about a variety of topics and produces "The Uplift," CBS News' streaming show that focuses on good news.