For all those celebrating, others are concerned that mass aviation has added millions of tonnes of excess carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
George Hibberd, 32, left his job as an EasyJet pilot to co-found Safe Landing, a community of aviation workers concerned about climate change.
“Aviation has connected cultures all around the world, it’s a true gift.
“I’m glad it’s no longer a privilege to fly, but the majority of emissions are made by a small minority of very frequent fliers.
“The direction the industry is going is on the wrong flight path,” he said.
EasyJet emitted eight million tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2024 – more than the total emissions of Albania or Sierra Leone.
It has launched a plan to reach net zero by 2050, external, admitting its “operations are negatively contributing to climate change”.
However, Mr Hibberd said it relied too heavily on unproven technologies, and that planned passenger growth would cancel out any success.
“They’re getting more efficient, but if you plot it against the projected growth overall, [emissions are] going up and up.”
He added that EasyJet’s net zero pathway graph was “quite misleading”.
“That downward line looks like their total emissions, but it’s actually the ’emissions intensity’ which is per passenger.”
Mr Hibberd believes “we need to temporarily reduce the amount we fly”, and advocates a frequent flier levy.
