Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 October 2023
65. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Transport how many private jet flights landed and departed the State in 2022, excluding military or diplomatic flights; where those flights landed and departed from; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43786/23]
View answerIn answering the Deputy’s question, it is important to note that 'private jets' are not specifically defined in national, European or international law. The nature of ownership does not arise as a specific categorisation and therefore data is not collected specifically in relation to ‘private jets’.
Data in relation to flight types are categorised based on the EUROCONTROL Market Segment Rules 2022 which classifies flights into the following categories: Military, Business Aviation, All Cargo, Low-Cost, Regional, Mainline, Charter, and other. This classification is based on a set of rules that use a mixture of operator, aircraft type and route information to determine the corresponding category.
Within such a classification the 'Business Aviation' segment includes all Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) movements matching specific aircraft types listed within the business aviation rules. As such this would incorporate private jet flights alongside business/executive jet flights.
Data received from Air Nav Ireland, drawn from all flight plan information, broadly mirrors the EUROCONTROL data, but also includes additional movements conducted under Visual Flight rules. This captures smaller aircraft flying by sight.
Data received from AirNav Ireland identifies 8,278 such 'business aviation' departures and 8,437 arrivals for the 2022 period.
The data in relation to where such flights departed to and arrived from is not available in the format requested. However my officials will arrange to supply the Deputy with the raw data for his own further analysis.
