Aviation Sustainability (2018)

Dear Colleagues,

Aviation is, for various reasons, a key transportation sector. It has great and growing relevance for the transport of people and freight, and is also responsible for a wide range of negative externalities linked to land use, noise, and emissions of greenhouse gases. According to International Air Transport Association (IATA), the sector carried more than four billion passengers in 2017 and is involved in 35% of all world trade (by value). In 2017 alone, passenger growth exceeded 8%, also as a result of demand stimulated by the rapidly falling real cost of air travel. While the sector’s overall profitability has improved in recent years, evidence suggests that very significant subsidies continue to be forwarded to the sector along its value chain.

Environmentally, aviation’s rapidly-growing contribution to emissions of greenhouse gases is in stark contrast to global decarbonization pledges as negotiated in the Paris Agreement. The sector also faces mounting pressure to reconsider its Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), which will not contribute to emission reductions and allow for essentially unchecked growth. Technological advances to develop alternative fuels have remained unpromising, and this is unlikely to change without much clearer carbon price signals. Last, the lack of an awareness within the industry of aviation’s very low sustainability credentials, combined with the sector’s omnipresent greenwashing efforts, are issues in themselves.

Socially, an increasingly global world demands air travel, as a result of spreading business ties, family relations, and production patterns. Yet, only a small share of humanity travels by air internationally in a given year: Air transport remains an activity of the wealthy. Who flies, and for which reasons, including the mobility patterns of cultural, economic, and political elites? Which role does social media have in stimulating air travel? Which freight is flown, and in which quantities?

Politically, the sector is difficult to tackle, as a result of bilateral agreements, its global operations, lobbyism, and perceptions of freedom of movement linked to air travel. Are there countries that have implemented policies to control the development of air transport? Who are the key actors in air transport policymaking, and why is there such a lack of progress on regulating the sector?

This Special Issue is designed to address these aspects. Topics may include the following, though any aspect linked to sustainability is welcome in principle:

• Infrastructure capacity limits, airport expansion and growth
• Air freight
• Discretionary air travel versus induced demand
• Frequent flier programs
• Frequent traveler distribution and segments
• Conflicts over noise, land use and other negative externalities
• Aviation and climate change
• CORSIA—potential alternatives
• Progress on biofuels, barriers to market introduction
• Carbon taxes, their scale and effects
• Greenwashing and pro-environmental discourses
• Subsidies: Their character, scale and effects
• Sustainability policies at regional, national and international levels
• The future sustainability of air travel

Prof. Dr. Stefan Gössling
Guest Editor

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