Greening the Air Transport System: Structure, Concept, and Principles

Abstract

Over the past two decades, greening (ensuring the sustainable development of the air transport system) has been considered as an important part of the agenda by almost all the system’s involved parties. These include: (1) aviation organisations for international cooperation; (2) international aviation organisations; (3) air transport system operators such as airports, ATC (Air Traffic Control/management), and airlines; (4) aerospace manufacturers of aircraft, engines, avionics, and other supportive facilities equipment; (5) non-governmental organisations and lobby groups; (6) users such as air passengers and air cargo shippers; and (7) research, scientific and consultancy organisations (EEC, 2004; Janic, 2007). Despite the diversity of involved parties and their interests, in most cases, the concept of greening or sustainable development has been viewed, until recently, rather narrowly by emphasising eco-efficiency, usually considering only a few types of impacts—energy consumption and related local and global emissions of greenhouse gases, and local noise around airports. More recently, other impacts such as land use (take) by the air transport infrastructure (mainly airports and their connection to the catchment area) and particularly congestion and delays have been taken into account. At the same time, the costs of these impacts in terms of the environmental and social damages have been elaborated, but not yet systematically internalised.