Introduction:
Environmental concerns pose both challenges and opportunities to the aviation sector. Describe what you see as the key environment-related opportunities and challenges the industry faces, and what the relevant stakeholders can do to best maximize profit and minimize risks. One of the most common concerns in the aviation sector is noise. Here, the key sources of noise within aircrafts are their engines. This is particularly evident as they approach and airframe noise in times of aircraft's flaps and slats, which are fully extended, as well as during the deployment of the landing gear. The levels of aircraft noise are currently typically around 20 dB lower as compared to 40 years ago.
This is a representation of a significant acoustic energy reduction within the source and for each individual event where the listener independently perceives the noise level. On the other hand, across this period, the level of air traffic movements significantly increases and continues to grow. In the end, aircraft noise develops into having very significant environmental impacts in airports and a major element of disturbance to the members of the public (Uwagwuna, 2011). A majority of airports have their operations rather constrained due to noise-related issues. Most airports continue implementing charging schemes for noise, night curfews or even nighttime restrictions.
The second major concern is the local air quality. Almost all air pollutants like Nitrogen Oxides (that is, NO2 and NO) as well as particulate matter (PM) are identified as some of the key contributors within air transport to the issues facing local air quality. The exposure to particulate material leads to adverse impacts that range from minor outcomes for the respiratory system all the way to premature mortality. At various busy airports, NO2 levels already surpass the annual limit set on ambient air quality. Therefore, compliance with the set PM limits also becomes one of the main increasing issues. Therefore, it is likely that air quality is a significant element in the deliberations concerning the addition of runway capacities (Upham, 2003).
Other airports apply emissions charging schemes at their operation areas airport as well as the air quality directives, which result in introducing more quality management schemes of local air, as well as emissions in relation to charging regimes across the future. At this point, it is crucial to appreciate the fact that aviation alone represents up to 2% of carbon the dioxide emissions and at the same time having general aviation growing to a smaller portion in terms of numbers. This way, reauthorization funding is stalled even though it is crucial towards making sustainable progress within this area.
The other major environmental concern is the use of alternative forms of fuels. Alternative fuels need to be major drivers to attaining the lead objectives for aviation of carbon-neutral growth. The drop in use of bio-fuels has been through successful tests and has already been introduced to daily operations based on various commercial routes. Here, the industry aims at replacing up to 6% of the current fossil fuel usage with bio-fuel by the year 2020. Past the complex life cycle assessment issues, the main challenge is ensuring that the bio-fuels continue maintaining high supply levels for reliable and cost-effective trends in air operators (Penke, 2009).
The sector’s future objectives on the environmental variations are also critical dimensions of addressing the sustainability of the aviation industry. The industry’s ultimate aim is sustainable development through which the environment does not undergo unnecessary sacrifice to enable growth as well as future generations in enabling the continuity of benefits from air travel. Increasingly, the aviation industry is already starting to address this formidable task through continued and imaginative effort as is required in ensuring that the industry is able to maximize on the environmental capacity usage.
The development and diversification of the opportunities posed by the environment to the aviation industry falls to governments as well as regulatory bodies who act on the public’s behalf in ensuring that aviation growth remains as environmentally sound and compatible as possible. The perceived customer priorities and industry passenger Priorities are convergent in purchasing airline Tickets. While an airline’s priorities will be meeting the passenger’s preferences, the airport priorities will aim at fulfilling airline and passenger preferences and the manufacturer’s priorities will be meeting the respective airline’s references.
The lead opportunities in this dimension include safety and security, favorable ticket pricing, reliability, adequacy in capacity as well as dispatch reliability. This also extends to frequent flyer benefits and economics of operation within runways. There is also the element of durability (airframe fatigue) and sustained schedules and trip lengths. The aircrafts compatibility with airlines’ route systems and air traffic control creates an aspect of comfort and dependability. The diversity of the gates and terminals favorably meet the passenger ticket costs and on-time performance in terms of costs per seat-kilometer.
The main areas of concern in this case include durability, cost of maintenance and fuel burn. The ice and snow removal based on the prevailing climate has much impact on the airline’s profitability, manufacturer’s profitability and environmental impacts. Subsequent areas of interest will include parking, passenger comfort, and passenger convenience including ground access (Gossling & Upham, 2012). The general environmental impacts greatly deal with in-flight entertainment, cabin noise and other priorities, which can vary across different passenger groups. For instance, schedule as well as trip lengths are usually higher priorities as compared to ticket prices for business travelers.
In conclusion, through achieving the full potential of operational and technical measures in reducing emissions, the overall emission levels across increased numbers of sources will rise. The populations of people who are potentially impacted by the emissions depend on the proximity to such pollution sources as well as the local conditions, which influence dispersal of such pollutants. Most of such impacts become generic in the infrastructure developments. For instance, careful location of airport infrastructure enables the avoidance of ecologically valuable sites as well as areas that have great landscapes and cultural value. This way, minimizing water pollution as well as controlling the surface water run-off from airport becomes readily achievable and projected to thorough regulatory control.
With reference to waste management, airports increasingly acknowledge that such actions are necessary aimed at minimizing and recycling various types of waste (Delfmann, 2005). On the other hand, airport operators maintain that waste is generated by sources, which are not within their direct control. This way, waste minimization is not efficiently implemented. There is wide recognition that having to address such environmental impacts on aviation will require ‘balanced approaches’ that incorporate both nontechnical measures and technological improvements like modifications to aircraft operations (such as routing aircraft on flight paths which minimize the level of exposure to noise high levels).
References:
Delfmann (2005) Strategic Management in the Aviation Industry. New York: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Gossling , Upham (2012) Climate Change and Aviation: "Issues, Challenges and Solutions". New York: Earthscan
Penke (2009) Environmental Management in the Aviation Sector, Implementation of a Carbon Footprint Calculator in the Low-Cost Carrier Sector: Bachelor Thesis. New York: Stralsund
Upham (2003) Towards Sustainable Aviation. New York: Earthscan
Uwagwuna C., (2011) How the Macroeconomic Environment of the Airline Industry Affects the Strategic Decision of Boing Vs Airbus: A Case Study. New York: GRIN Verlag
