Private jets

The National Geographic’s ‘Around the World by Private Jet’ trips take in some of the world’s most amazing destinations including Kyoto, Seoul, Singapore and many more places, but they come at a cost

National Geographic’s new private jet trip is the most expensive holiday I’ve ever seen, and possibly the most ridiculous.

The 23-day private jet trip is a wildlife adventure through Asia and Africa, starting with a welcome dinner in Singapore. You’ll then fly to Borneo to meet orangutans and sun bears before cruising the Kinabatangan River. In India, the journey continues to Jaipur, then Ranthambore National Park to search for tigers.

Next come safaris in Sri Lanka’s Yala and Bundala parks, then the Maldives, and jetting on to Madagascar where Nosy Be offers lemurs, chameleons and snorkelling. In South Africa, Phinda Private Game Reserve brings Big Five safaris, and in Rwanda, guests trek to see mountain gorillas. The trip concludes in Rome before guests are jetted back home.

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And all of that for the low, low price of $144,995 (£108,700) per person, or $6,304 (£4,726) a day. As well as needing more disposable cash than most people will enjoy in a lifetime, there is another big issue with the trip – which is one of five private jet itineraries Nat Geo offers.

Each passenger onboard the chartered Boeing 757, which has been modified to cut the standard 233 seats to 80 business class spots, is responsible for 7,851 kg CO2e (calculated using the Travel Impact Model). By some calculations, the annual “carbon budget” is as low as 700kg CO2e per year. The average Brit produces 8,000kg of CO2e over a year.

As this record-breaking hot and dry summer has made abundantly clear, the Earth is in a perilous position. We’re not just edging but moving closer, rapidly, to breaching and then going well past the 1.5C global warming level set out by the Paris Agreement. This doesn’t mean hot summers on the beach; it means climate breakdown, droughts, famines and heat deaths.

As the UN warns: “Exceeding 1.5°C could also trigger multiple climate tipping points, such as breakdowns of major ocean circulation systems, abrupt thawing of boreal permafrost, and collapse of tropical coral reef systems, with abrupt, irreversible, and dangerous impacts for humanity.”

The Nat Geo trip appears at odds with the company’s own corporate responsibility policy, which states: National Geographic activities, products, and services should be designed in such a way as to minimise negative environmental impacts and optimise positive environmental impacts. This commitment is reflected in the “Sustainability Guidelines” set forth in the Brand Standards Guidelines.

National Geographic did not respond to requests for comment.

Flying is a particular problem, as currently, most people don’t fly. 80% of people have never flown. As the world gets richer and more people step aboard a plane, emissions will soar. As other sectors decarbonise, aviation keeps growing and polluting more.

The independent Climate Change Committee projected that aviation’s proportion of UK greenhouse gas emissions will increase from 7% in 2022 to 9% in 2025, 11% in 2030 and 16% in 2035.

Katie Thompson, CEO and founder of environmental aviation charity Bumprints, is a former commercial jet pilot and private jet industry worker who now refuses to fly.

“I started looking at climate and everything changed. No one talks about it in the aviation industry; it’s a complete elephant in the departure lounge. You study a lot to be a pilot, but the whole time, climate was never mentioned. You know a lot about weather, but the whole topic of climate change is completely absent,” Katie told the Mirror. “It’s easier not to talk about it. You fall in love with the world by travelling in it, but then you have to protect it.”

Katie argues that the National Geographic private jet trip is at odds with the organisation’s ethos. “If you really care about wildlife, you need to think about what’s happening to their habitats. It’s 100% human-induced warming that’s causing devastation and the sixth mass extinction. Then you connect the dots between your life choices and what’s happening. If you added up the carbon of just that trip, it would blow through hundreds of people’s annual budgets,” she said.

“Booking this kind of holiday is so completely out of line with that. It’s really hard to justify this. I am jealous because I want to go on this trip, but I couldn’t. Some people are still living as if we’re in the 1970s and this felt like a future problem.”

Katie urged people to be more conscious passengers, in part by checking the predicted emissions of different services on Google Flights. These can vary considerably on the same route, with some three times lower than others.

Rylan Clark revealed that his mother Linda has suffered another health issue, following a turbulent few years which have also seen her break her arm and leg while on holiday

Rylan Clark‘s mum Linda has shared a health update after he voiced concerns about her wellbeing. During his BBC Radio 2 show last weekend, he told listeners that his mum would be joining him for their weekly on-air chat following a break, but revealed that she had recently injured herself.

At the start of his show, he said: “Mummy Linda is going to be back on the phone a bit later on, hopefully she’s alright, she scraped her leg the other day, so that’s been fun. I’m just like okay, yep, here we go, another issue but I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

Later in the programme, Linda confirmed that she was fine before telling him: “You ain’t got to tell everyone thank you.”

Rylan went on to call his mum “a nightmare walking”, following her many other health ordeals.

The 74-year-old insisted that she would no longer do things around the house after her previous accidents.

“You said that before when you broke your arm and leg just falling over,” the 37-year-old replied. She responded: “I get bored and I need to do things.”

Back in January, Linda suffered a fractured shoulder and was left bruised after falling over on ice while taking her bins out.

Last year, she also took a tumble down a retailer’s escalators, leaving her in need of medical attention.

During a holiday in Spain in 2023, she broke her arm and leg, leaving her needing to be escorted back to the UK on a private jet equipped with medical equipment.

Rylan took time off work during this period to support his mother through her surgery and recovery.

Two months later, he shared a photo of her at his Essex home for the first time since the accident, as they celebrated his birthday together.

During the latest episode of his show, Rylan also jokingly urged producers to “sack” him after poking fun at the BBC’s strict advertising rules.

He went on to insist he “didn’t care” about the BBC’s rules while rapper Professor Green, whose real name is Stephen Paul Manderson, took part in his Rylexa feature, inspired by Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa.

Introducing the game, Rylan said: “I’ve been creating a new artificial intelligence machine called Rylexa, I’m looking for people to buy shares in it. If you want, we can talk after the show.”

Aware of the broadcaster’s impartiality guidelines, which are in place because UK viewers fund the BBC through the TV licence fee, Professor Green responded: “Sure. There are other AI platforms that you can invest in, isn’t that what you’ve got to say on the BBC?”

Rylan cheekily exclaimed: “But they’re not Rylexa! Who cares? Sack me!”.