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The Future of Sustainable Mobility Air Transport Systems: Challenges and Approaches

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 22117

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Luis Delgado

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster, NW1 5LS, United Kingdom
Interests: transport; air traffic management; system modelling and optimisation; data-driven analysis; agent-based modelling; stakeholder trade-off analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Air transport has different and significant impacts on the environment (emissions, local air quality, noise), and a broad reflection on sustainable practices is required. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact, significantly reducing the numbers of flights. In this new context, passengers have reassessed their mobility needs, but a future increment in demand is expected for the coming years.

The objective of aviation is to provide a functional mobility service to passengers and goods. The current context provides an opportunity to perform this reflection and to build on new practices and ideas for developing a more sustainable mobility framework. The relationship between stakeholders (airlines, airports, network manager, passengers) must evolve to provide an environmentally and economically sustainable development.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to better understand the different approaches for the implementation of a sustainable air mobility sector, including the environmental impact of the system, but also its economic viability and the monitoring of performances across different stakeholders.

This Special Issue invites original research papers, reviews and case studies on the topic of sustainable air transport with a focus on:

  • reduction of the environmental impact of aviation (e.g., emissions; local air quality; noise; contributions to climate change);
  • air transport sustainability including economic aspects;
  • mobility solutions covering all phases of journey in the door-to-door context, including not only the flight but airport access and processes (for passengers and aircraft, and ground and air side), and the complementarity of the system with intermodality solutions;
  • indicators, metrics and assessment of performance across stakeholders on the air transport with focus on the environmental and sustainable mobility;
  • frameworks to assess, evaluate and monitor the air transport solutions;
  • policies and regulations to steer the air transport system towards a more sustainable system;

Dr. Luis Delgado
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • air transport mobility
  • sustainable air mobility
  • stakeholder analysis

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 3576 KiB  
Article
A New Mobility Era: Stakeholders’ Insights regarding Urban Air Mobility
by Annitsa Koumoutsidi, Ioanna Pagoni and Amalia Polydoropoulou
Sustainability 2022, 14(5), 3128; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14053128 - 07 Mar 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4136
Abstract
Urban Air Mobility (UAM) constitutes a future aerial mobility alternative, which concerns the use of electric and autonomous aerial vehicles for transporting people throughout a planned network of vertiports. To materialize UAM, several actors of the air and urban transport ecosystem play a [...] Read more.
Urban Air Mobility (UAM) constitutes a future aerial mobility alternative, which concerns the use of electric and autonomous aerial vehicles for transporting people throughout a planned network of vertiports. To materialize UAM, several actors of the air and urban transport ecosystem play a vital role. This paper describes the insights gathered from 32 key stakeholders around the world to present and frame the key aspects for the future implementation of UAM. The participants include representatives from the UAM industry such as airports, airlines, aviation consulting companies, academia, and authorities. The data collection encompasses various key research areas, covering topics such as UAM strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks, requirements for implementation, concept integration in the existing transport system, specific use cases, business models, and end-user segments. The research aims at setting up the stakeholder scene and expanding the current literature for UAM by engaging key decision makers and experts towards shaping the new mobility era. The results demonstrate that ensuring certification standards for UAM fleets and updating the current legal and regulatory framework are the main prerequisites for UAM’s realization. In addition, the usage of UAM for transporting cargo or for air ambulance services are the most mature business models for the coming decade. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Sustainable Mobility Air Transport Systems: Challenges and Approaches)
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23 pages, 2520 KiB  
Article
Analytical Models for CO2 Emissions and Travel Time for Short-to-Medium-Haul Flights Considering Available Seats
by Adeline Montlaur, Luis Delgado and César Trapote-Barreira
Sustainability 2021, 13(18), 10401; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su131810401 - 17 Sep 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3212
Abstract
Recently, there has been much interest in measuring the environmental impact of short-to-medium-haul flights. Emissions of CO2 are usually measured to consider the environmental footprint, and CO2 calculators are available using different types of approximations. We propose analytical models calculating gate-to-gate [...] Read more.
Recently, there has been much interest in measuring the environmental impact of short-to-medium-haul flights. Emissions of CO2 are usually measured to consider the environmental footprint, and CO2 calculators are available using different types of approximations. We propose analytical models calculating gate-to-gate CO2 emissions and travel time based on the flight distance and on the number of available seats. The accuracy of the numerical results were in line with other CO2 calculators, and when applying an analytical fitting, the error of interpolation was low. The models presented the advantage with respect to other calculators of being sensitive to the number of available seats, a parameter generally not explicitly considered. Its applicability was shown in two practical examples where emissions and travel time per kilometre were calculated for several European routes in a simple and efficient manner. The model enabled the identification of routes where rail would be a viable alternative both from the emissions and total travel time perspectives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Sustainable Mobility Air Transport Systems: Challenges and Approaches)
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19 pages, 1744 KiB  
Article
The Carbon Footprint of Airport Ground Access as Part of an Outbound Holiday Trip
by Raúl Hernández-Martín and Hugo Padrón-Ávila
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9085; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13169085 - 13 Aug 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2432
Abstract
In this paper, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions derived from airport surface access of outbound German tourists travelling to the Canary Islands have been estimated. It is argued that carbon footprint estimations in tourism must be improved to incorporate the transport to the airports [...] Read more.
In this paper, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions derived from airport surface access of outbound German tourists travelling to the Canary Islands have been estimated. It is argued that carbon footprint estimations in tourism must be improved to incorporate the transport to the airports within the country of origin. To do so, statistical data from the Tourism Expenditure Survey of the Canary Islands have been used. In particular, the postcodes of a large sample of German tourists visiting the archipelago from 2012 to 2014 are used to identify their residence and the distances travelled to their chosen airport. The findings of the paper contribute to the literature on tourism carbon footprints, including an estimate of the share of airport surface access emissions in a typical outbound sun and beach holiday trip. Airport ground access accounted for 8.17% of transport-related emissions. These results have implications for urban planners, transport firms, and tourism management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Sustainable Mobility Air Transport Systems: Challenges and Approaches)
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16 pages, 3106 KiB  
Article
Community Detection for Air Traffic Networks and Its Application in Strategic Flight Planning
by Silvia Zaoli, Giovanni Scaini and Lorenzo Castelli
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8924; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13168924 - 09 Aug 2021
Viewed by 1806
Abstract
An environmentally and economically sustainable air traffic management system must rely on fast models to assess and compare various alternatives and decisions at the different flight planning levels. Due to the numerous interactions between flights, mathematical models to manage the traffic can be [...] Read more.
An environmentally and economically sustainable air traffic management system must rely on fast models to assess and compare various alternatives and decisions at the different flight planning levels. Due to the numerous interactions between flights, mathematical models to manage the traffic can be computationally time-consuming when considering a large number of flights to be optimised at the same time. Focusing on demand–capacity imbalances, this paper proposes an approach that permits to quickly obtain an approximate but acceptable solution of this problem. The approach consists in partitioning flights into subgroups that influence each other only weakly, solving the problem independently in each subgroup, and then aggregating the solutions. The core of the approach is a method to build a network representing the interactions among flights, and several options for the definition of an interaction are tested. The network is then partitioned with existing community detection algorithms. The results show that applying a strategic flight planning optimisation algorithm on each subgroup independently reduces significantly the computational time with respect to its application on the entire European air traffic network, at the cost of few and small violations of sector capacity constraints, much smaller than those actually observed on the day of operations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Sustainable Mobility Air Transport Systems: Challenges and Approaches)
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16 pages, 1369 KiB  
Article
Updating National Air Passenger Demand from Traffic Counts: The Case of a Secondary Airport in an Underdeveloped Region
by Francesco Russo, Giuseppe Fortugno, Marco Merante, Domenica Savia Pellicanò and Maria Rosaria Trecozzi
Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8372; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13158372 - 27 Jul 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1533
Abstract
Demand models allow to estimate the choices made by users on different alternatives. Demand models depend on the characteristic attributes of the users and transport networks, as well as on parameters. Their significance translates into the reliability of the model in reproducing users’ [...] Read more.
Demand models allow to estimate the choices made by users on different alternatives. Demand models depend on the characteristic attributes of the users and transport networks, as well as on parameters. Their significance translates into the reliability of the model in reproducing users’ choices as demand values. Traffic counts are aggregated data that can be used to update demand values of O/D matrix and/or for re-calibrating parameters from sets of parameters obtained in different situations or at different times in the same scenario using a reverse assignment modal. This paper provides the use of passenger counts to update national air transport demand by calibrating a hierarchical logit model. The application focuses on estimating the demand values for a secondary airport of an underdeveloped European region with the calibration of the logsum parameter working between distribution and modal choice. The updated model can be used to test new conditions for the supply of a new service or to increase the frequency or to modify the ticket level by means of public service obligations. The results show that the introduction of public obligations in the secondary airport in an underdeveloped region is crucial for future sustainability. Considering the decline in the economic, social and environmental sustainability in the region, the airport is central to economic and social development at the same time as being important for environmental sustainability, as it limits the impacts on the territory related to the construction of large transport infrastructures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Sustainable Mobility Air Transport Systems: Challenges and Approaches)
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23 pages, 5431 KiB  
Article
The Sustainability of Academic Air Mobility in Finnish Universities
by Veronica Ahonen, Mika Siljander, Petri Pellikka, Tino Johansson and Mikko Rask
Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2948; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13052948 - 09 Mar 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4537
Abstract
With the simultaneous rise of concern about the climate crisis and the growing internationalization of research institutions, academic mobility poses an “academic paradox”: knowledge of the environmental harm of aviation does not necessarily translate into action. Universities must make changes to their mobility [...] Read more.
With the simultaneous rise of concern about the climate crisis and the growing internationalization of research institutions, academic mobility poses an “academic paradox”: knowledge of the environmental harm of aviation does not necessarily translate into action. Universities must make changes to their mobility habits if they wish to comply with governmental carbon neutrality targets and lead with example. This research looks at Finland’s 14 universities and identifies the patterns and trends of academic mobility from a series of reports provided by the universities and their travel agencies. Moreover, we mapped the travel destinations to understand the scope of Finnish academic travel. The data revealed that Finnish universities are in different states of sustainability: some acting as clear trendsetters and others lagging. The results show that although the universities are performing well in some areas, as in preferring European destinations over intercontinental ones, there are still areas of improvement related to stopover reduction, the number of 1- and 2-day trips, and alternative transport forms to aviation. There is also a need for the standardization of targets and emission calculators. These key development areas are posed as recommendations through which the universities could easily reduce the carbon footprint of their mobility. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Sustainable Mobility Air Transport Systems: Challenges and Approaches)
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23 pages, 1523 KiB  
Article
The Constrained Air Transport Energy Paradigm in 2021
by Abel Jiménez-Crisóstomo, Luis Rubio-Andrada, María Soledad Celemín-Pedroche and María Escat-Cortés
Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2830; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13052830 - 05 Mar 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3254
Abstract
The increasing relevance of air transport as a contributor to climate change requires the development of emissions reduction technologies in a socio-economic and cultural context, where demand and air traffic have traditionally held sustained growth rates. However, the irruption of COVID-19 in 2020 [...] Read more.
The increasing relevance of air transport as a contributor to climate change requires the development of emissions reduction technologies in a socio-economic and cultural context, where demand and air traffic have traditionally held sustained growth rates. However, the irruption of COVID-19 in 2020 has had an enormous negative impact on air travel demand and traffic volumes. Coincidentally, during 2020, new technology proposals for emissions reduction based on use of hydrogen and synthetic fuels have emerged from the aviation stake holders. By following a novel approach connecting the analysis of expectations of technology developments and their deployment into the fleet to market constraints, this study discusses how, even considering the new technology proposals and even if the COVID-19 has led to a completely different scenario in tourism and aviation, the air transport energy paradigm will remain unchanged in the upcoming decades as a consequence of market constraints, aircraft complexity, compliance with safety requirements, and extended life cycles. In this frame, aviation needs to keep on pursuing the abatement of its emissions while managing social expectations in a realistic manner and leaning on compensation schemes to achieve emissions contention while new technologies become serviceable in the longer term. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Sustainable Mobility Air Transport Systems: Challenges and Approaches)
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