Premier league top Flights : 81 flights from 100 games

Watch uksports as Aviation team gives shocking report of 81 flights from 100 games as Premier league is reaching its peak, players and fans uses Flights for travelling to the stadium and return, it is said that out of 100 flights 81 have been used for the premier league premises of domestic Airlines. It is said to be only calculated for two month from the start of this year.

The 100 fixtures studied included 82 Premier League games out of all game, 13 FA Cup fixtures with the Premier League team playing away from home, and five EFL Cup matches. It is an analysed data from Flightradar24, cross-referencing from the UK Sports Aviation twitter account.

Premier league standings

Whether it’s Trent Alexander-Arnold on a flight back from Newcastle to Liverpool, Chelsea’s Ben Chilwell flying from London to Leicester or Nottm Forest players on their way from East Midlands Airport to Blackpool, occasional social media posts have only the insight of the game and other stuffs to inform the debate around Premier League clubs flying whether they can travel through Road or Rail.

Now, a study of 100 games played in the UK including Premier League teams between 19 January and 19 March 2023 has given the volume of usage of domestic airlines, some as short as 27 minutes.

And the reports mention that empty flights from near airports were accessed for bringing players and staff for the play.

As the Premier League’s most distant team, Bournemouth perhaps have more justification than others to fly to some games. They flew to Birmingham airport and back on 17-18 March for their fixture with Aston Villa a return journey totalling 73 minutes.

But the data pointed towards a further four ‘positioning flights’ connected to this trip three of which were from Scotland an additional 201 minutes flying.

The Premier League does not centrally mandate clubs’ individual travel plans, but said in a statement “recognises the need to take action on climate change and is committed to reducing its overall climate impact”.

The statement added: “Clubs have demonstrated their commitment to positive change in this area and continue to play an important role in raising awareness of the issue among fans, but must consider environment issues.

Those policies, the Premier League pointed out, include more sustainable fan travel initiatives, use of renewable energy and conservation projects.

The Premier League pointed out that in the two-month period, there were more than 74,000 domestic flights in the UK putting the 81 Premier League club flights at less than 0.1% of that total.

Domestic airlines: 81 flights from 100 games

81 individual domestic flights by Premier League clubs inlcuding reutrns

Of those 81 flights, the breakdown was 59 flights for Premier league fixtures; 16 for FA Cup games and six for EFL Cup matches

The shortest flight was just 27 minutes; the longest 77 minutes. The average duration of these 81 flights was 42 minutes. 7 of the 81 player flights had a flight marked as ‘positioning’ beforehand. The longest ‘positioning’ flight was 84 minutes; the shortest just 17 minutes. The average duration of the 37 ‘positioning’ flights in the study was 42 minutes.

‘Positioning’ flights are where the plane is getting into position to pick up its private travellers. They are normally what the aviation industry calls “empty leg” flights so without passengers shortly as ‘ghost’ flights, a term used to describe passengers less than10%.

The biggest emissions are generated from stadiums on matchdays and fan travel which is the sport’s biggest climate footprint. The Premier League statement said its work will also include “encouraging fans” to “consider how” they can reduce their own carbon footprint.

However, Dale Vince, chairman of League One side Forest Green, regarded as the world’s most sustainable football team, called it “shocking data in just two months”, adding: “It’s an illusion to think there is a gain for a flight of that duration, modern coaches are very comfortable and aren’t going to impair the performance of the players over that short distance”

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