I still can’t wrap my head around the physics. Commercial jets weigh more than private jets and carry much more people (which also contributes to the extra weight)
Doesn’t that mean the plane would have to do extra work to move around, and thus consume more fuel as an energy source?
Shouldn’t that make them emit more gases as end products of combustion?
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Private jets are far more polluting than commercial jets per person, per unit of distance travelled, since they typically have far fewer people on board. In general, public transport tends to be far less polluting than private vehicles per person, e.g. buses and trains are generally much better than cars.
But there are some considerations that make private jets even worse. Often, many of the passengers will be personal staff who only need to be there at all because their client is. They’re also often used for frivolous journeys, including extremely short flights – it can be worth getting on a very short flight as a VIP, since you can schedule the flight exactly when you need it and you can use small private airfields where you don’t need to wait around for security checks and so on.
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