Elon Musk castigated for flying around world six times last year

Elon Musk’s view that fossil fuels are “the dumbest experiment in human history” didn’t stop him logging 241,000km by jet last year.

Elon Musk’s jet at Adelaide Airport in 2017. Picture: Keryn Stevens/AAP

Elon Musk’s corporate jet flew more than 150,000 miles last year, exposing the billionaire to accusations of hypocrisy over the environmentalism that underpins his business empire.

The flights, which included work trips and personal holidays, covered a distance equivalent to at least six circumnavigations of the globe.

Data shows that on several occasions the jet flew from one part of Los Angeles to another to spare Mr Musk from traffic.

Tesla, Mr Musk’s electronic vehicle, battery and solar power company, describes its mission as “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”.

He started SpaceX, his rocket-building firm, to facilitate interplanetary travel and save humans from an “eventual extinction event” on Earth.

In September Mr Musk, 47, described fossil fuels as “the dumbest experiment in human history”.

A few days later, according to flight records obtained by The Washington Post, his $US70 million ($AU96.6 million) 2015 Gulfstream G650ER flew 300 miles from LA to Oakland so that Mr Musk could visit a video-gaming competition with his children and do some business related to Tesla.

The flights were largely paid for by Tesla, which is facing a demand to repay almost a billion dollars of debt and has laid off thousands of workers.

The company stated that it did not cover the cost of Mr Musk’s personal trips, which included a visit to the set of Game of Thrones in Belfast, a holiday in Chile and another in Israel and Jordan.

— The Times

Elon Musk’s flights were largely paid for by Tesla, which is facing a demand to repay almost a billion dollars and has laid off thousands of workers. Picture: Mark Schiefelbein.