Scores of domestic flights taken by NHSE staff each year

Data showed that staff at NHSE (and NHS Improvement, which merged into NHSE last year) have used more than 2,000 domestic business flights since 2017. The reason given for around a third of these journeys was an internal meeting.

However, the annual number of flights has fallen dramatically since 2020, when the pandemic started.

Data obtained by HSJ through a freedom of information request showed 15 journeys between London Heathrow and Manchester Airport since 2017. A return flight for one staff member in July 2018, who was attending a conference, cost £402.

There were also 14 journeys listed between London Heathrow and Leeds-Bradford Airport.

NHS England said air travel is “only agreed to when there is no alternative or when it saves money”.

More common journeys included flights between Southampton to Manchester, of which there was more than 200 listed.

For at least the last decade, NHS England’s business travel policies have aimed to “prioritise more sustainable forms of travel”. In 2021, a government target was introduced to reduce carbon emissions from domestic air travel by 30 per cent, compared to a 2017-18 baseline.

According to annual reports, this requirement has comfortably been met, with carbon emissions falling over the period from 34 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, to just 2 tonnes.

There has also been a significant reduction in flight numbers, although less pronounced than emissions. The sharper reduction in emissions appears to be partly due to an increased number of instances where more than one staff member was on the same flight, as this adds additional journeys without increasing emissions.

The total number of domestic flights by staff totalled 335 in 2017, rising to 620 in 2018, and 749 in 2019. The numbers have been significantly smaller in the last three years, with 132 reported in 2022.

At least seven domestic flights were taken in January 2023, according to the data. These included a £400 round-trip from Southampton to Manchester for a conference, and a £326 one-way flight from London Heathrow to Glasgow for an internal meeting.

The most expensive flight since 2017 was a £1,159 return trip from the Shetland Isles to Teesside, via Aberdeen, for a meeting with external bodies.

Four other domestic air travel journeys cost over £500 since. As well as two return trips from London to Belfast, these included a £506 Newcastle to London Heathrow return trip in 2019 for an internal meeting, and a £504 London to Edinburgh return trip for a meeting with external bodies.

In 2020, the NHS launched its ambition to be the first net-zero health system by 2040.