Taylor Swift’s Representative Defends Singer’s Private Jet Use Following Backlash
A representative for Taylor Swift is speaking out in her defense after an organization named her the celebrity that caused the most carbon emissions using a private jet in 2022.
Yard, an analytics agency, surveyed data that suggested Swift's private jet spent about 22,923 minutes in the air. Her jet has been used 170 times so far this year. While the average trip clocked in around 80 minutes, it has embarked on a trip as short as 36 minutes.
The data suggested that her carbon footprint, simply from the jet's usage, is dramatically higher than the average person's.
Floyd Mayweather, Jay-Z, Alex Rodriguez and Blake Shelton filled out the remaining four spots in the top five on Yard's list. Other celebrities who made the cut include the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian and Travis Scott. Interestingly, Kylie Jenner — Kardashian's sister and Scott's partner — missed out on the top 10, although she was slammed for bragging about her private jet on social media in July.
Swift's representative claimed that the "Shake It Off" singer is not the only person to use her jet in a statement shared with Rolling Stone.
“Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals,” they claimed. “To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.”
It's worth pointing out that Swift was once the owner of two private jets. TMZ noted that she sold one around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Yard updated their story to include Swift's statement in a disclaimer. They also noted that the data was supplied from a Twitter page that tracks the flight logs of celebrity jets, and that it was impossible to determine if the celebrity owner was on each of the flights based on the information provided.
Drake, another celebrity who has been criticized for logging short flights on his own private jet has also defended some of his time in the air in the comments section on Instagram.
"This is just them moving planes to whatever airport they are being stored at for anyone who was interested in the logistics," he wrote, according to The Guardian. "Nobody takes that flight."
Swift and other celebrities included on the list have been called out on social media for the negative impact of their private jets.
One Twitter user pointed out the irony of the statement in Swift's defense. "You've really gotta hand it to taylor swift's publicist bc 'she generously rents out her jet for her poorer friends who can't afford their own personal jets to use' is the funniest possible way to put a humanitarian spin on her carbon emissions," they wrote.
Check out some of the tweets below: