aerospace integration

DEVELOPING POLICY FOR A SUSTAINABLE AEROSPACE INTEGRATION

GERARDO RODRIGUEZ

Despite steady improvements to control aircraft efficiency of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the industry has been showing yearly reports of steady two to three percent of global CO2 emissions. Even though, efforts to have better aircrafts and improve efficiency, there are no current plans to control emissions, and given the economic return of the aviation industry, there seems to be very limited efforts to control airlines to a certain degree of carbon dioxide emissions per aircraft. The economic benefit obtained in the aviation industry seems to be larger than the repercussions this one might have. the ideal solution would be to find a midpoint between both the economic benefit and the environmental impact of the industry.

However, what does a low – carbon air transport system would look like? The research behind this matter has been done to a series of 28 interviews to add depth into the analysis and suggest a solution for the stakeholders, leaders, environmentalists, passengers, government entities and third-party industry related. While there is current development to implement hybrid air vehicles, they are still not commercially available, with few exceptions of niche applications (Khoury, 2012; Ceruti and Marzocca, 2014).

Some of the current barriers of having hybrid air vehicles is that: 1) Aircraft goes on a slower speed than a regular aircraft, 2) International agreements which govern aviation fuel to be tax free for international flights. Which means, there is no current incentive for airlines to reduce fuel being burnt and producing carbon dioxide emissions while is tax free, there will always exist incentives to stick with conventional jets. However, the sustainable solution would require to have policy makers come into an agreement with stakeholders on subjects such as: taxation of aviation fuel, or an equal measure to bring down carbon consumption in the aviation industry. With this results, fast jets transportation will have a higher cost while slow hybrid aircrafts will become more affordable. Consecutively, aircrafts with electric engines will have a surge in the upcoming years and while they might not reach the same mileage per charge as a fuel jet, they will definitely be a better option for the environment.

The aviation industry has had opportunities to create proposals in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and one of the most prominent is the introduction of market-based measures which will help trade carbon emissions from aviation (ICAO, 2010). These measures range from technological improvements, modernizing aircrafts to avoid consumption of fuel making them less heavy, alternative fuels and last but not least an improvement of air traffic management in which allows aircrafts to be quicker while in the air. Even though with many challenges to have it approved by governments such as “short term economic benefits” for countries and voiding long term engaging in environmental agreements. Four out of five industry aviation stakeholders were convinced that this was the most feasible approach to a solution and a new path to a sustainable industry.