Trinity’s total expenditure on flights reached €1.4 million in 2024, according to a Freedom of Information request made by The University Times. The most significant jump occurred between 2022 and 2023, when spending nearly doubled from €677,040 to €1.3 million, before flight spending rising 100,000 Euro more in 2024.
The Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences faculties along with research projects were consistently the highest spenders.
This increase follows in the wake of Trinity being ranked at 265 in the Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS) World Sustainability List, earning a score of 43.8 in Environmental Sustainability, which considers factors such as the College’s net zero commitment and the efficiency of a university’s carbon emissions against its size.
By contrast, University College Dublin’s (UCD) earned an Environmental Sustainability score of 73.7.
The Research Department as a whole spent €542,547 on flights in 2024, almost twice as much as it did in 2022, accounting for 39% of total expenditure on flights that year. The Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences department’s expenditure on flights rose by 37.2% over the two year period.
A College spokesperson declined to comment on which specific events the flights were going towards, but noted that the steady increase in expenditure across departments can be attributed to a backlog created during pandemic-era travel restrictions. In 2021, no money was spent on flights due to refunds and cancelled bookings.
They noted that the activities pertaining to the travel costs were varied, and included different kinds of overseas meetings and conferences.
However, while most departments saw a steady increase in expenditure each year, flight expenditure by the Corporate Services Division and the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences peaked in 2023 with a slight decline in 2024, perhaps indicating that the figures have finally plateaued, falling in line with post-pandemic trends.
The least costly department was the Financial Services Division, which had no planned flights in 2021 and didn’t fly in 2022 when the restrictions were lifted. In 2023, the Division spent €181 and in 2024 that number jumped to €2,610, suggesting not all travel increases are Covid related.
The cost breakdown was released at the request of The University Times and it includes expenditure on flights in each department for the years 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The data for the Research Department does not include figures for individual faculties.
