BRUSSELS — The Cannes Film Festival started Tuesday, which means a lot of private jets are flying into Cannes–Mandelieu Airport despite the looming jet fuel crisis.

Some campaigners are calling for private jets to be grounded, but the business jet lobby is shrugging them off, saying the sector isn’t large enough to make much of a dent in fuel use and pollution.

While big airlines like SAS and Lufthansa are cutting thousands of flights due to rising fuel costs tied to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, private jet departures in Europe rose 10 percent last month, according to the Carbon Sky Index, a private aviation emissions tracking platform.

Disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has pushed jet fuel prices in Europe to double pre-war levels. Goldman Sachs research shared with POLITICO estimates that commercial jet fuel stocks in Europe, excluding government reserves, could fall below 23 days of supply by the end of May or early June — a critical threshold flagged by the International Energy Agency.

But that’s not deterring private jet users.

Private jets accounted for 23,462 departures in Europe in April, up 10 percent from March, Carbon Sky Index told POLITICO.

The platform said Easter may have been a “primary driver” of the increase. Nice Côte d’Azur Airport, for example, saw private jet traffic nearly double in the week of April 6 — a pattern also observed last year around Easter.

The platform uses transponder signals from aircraft across Europe and processes them with the emissions methodology adopted by the air navigation organization Eurocontrol.

However, the business-flying lobby says the numbers don’t indicate a problem.

“A short-term weekly increase does not, in itself, indicate a structural surge in demand,” said Róman Kok, public affairs director at the European Business Aviation Association.

“April includes strong seasonal and Easter-related effects, and wider European network traffic was still below 2025 levels in several April weeks,” he said, citing data from Eurocontrol.

Data shared by Carbon Sky Index shows that April’s jump in private jet flights increased CO2 emissions to 83,847 metric tons, up from around 80,000 metric tons in March. Still, that’s only a tiny share of overall aviation emissions, which totaled 195 million tons of CO2 in Europe in 2025, according to green NGO Transport & Environment.

But environmental campaigners aren’t buying the industry’s argument that the sector is too small to have an impact — hitting at the symbolism of the rich continuing to fly.

“It’s luxury travel in a fuel crisis and climate crisis that’s really irresponsible,” said Katie Thompson, a former private jet pilot who now campaigns to reduce air travel.

“Holiday travelers are looking nervously, waiting for that email telling them their flight’s going to be disrupted,” she said.

She accused private jet patrons of using kerosene that “normal people need for their holiday flights, but that also, if things get worse, we’re going to need it for basic humanitarian needs and medical emergencies.”

She called on actors and filmmakers to avoid private jets when traveling to the Cannes Film Festival and to follow the example of actor Pedro Pascal, who flew economy to last year’s gala.

According to T&E, last year VIPs burned around 2 million liters of kerosene flying to Cannes — equivalent to the emissions of roughly 14,000 round-trip flights between Paris and Athens.

“There’s no excuse for governments not to ground private jets entirely, given the fuel crisis,” said Jérôme du Boucher, the NGO’s deputy director of aviation.

The private jet sector rejects those arguments.

“Business aviation represents a small share of overall aviation activity — around 7 percent of flights in Europe — with an even smaller proportion of total fuel consumption,” Kok said.

Fuel savings from grounding those flights “would be limited and would not concretely contribute to addressing the broader energy challenge,” he added, pointing instead to scaling up sustainable aviation fuels as a solution.

Campaigners are also calling on the European Commission to close what they describe as “loopholes” in carbon pricing rules under the Emissions Trading System regarding private jets. The EU’s carbon trading system generally only covers larger operators, while about two-thirds of private planes aren’t included.

“Based on our estimations, we categorically reject that two-thirds of private jets are exempted,” Kok said, noting that the ETS exemptions “apply across aviation, not only to business aviation.”

Thompson said campaigners will continue targeting major events that attract celebrities, the wealthy and their jets.

“It’s definitely not just Cannes — we’re looking at the [FIFA] World Cup, Monaco Grand Prix and the Australian Open,” she said.