Dear Colleagues,

Aviation plays a unique role in the global transportation system, facilitating the high speed carriage of people and high value goods over long distances. Over the past half century, the air transport industry has come to play an increasingly important role in social and economic development, giving rise to new patterns of trade and migration and promoting the development and maintenance of multi-cultural societies, the global economy, and multi-national political alliances.

The benefits that arise from global mobility and transportation are significant, and a wide number of regions and societies have become highly dependent upon the sector.

The exponential growth of civil air transport since the 1950s has, however, given rise to significant adverse environmental impacts, and these now threaten the future of the industry. At a local level, aircraft noise and local air quality are already giving rise to capacity constraints and delaying planning approvals for growth at airports, thereby limiting their ability to respond to demand and social and economic development in the regions they serve.

Meanwhile, at a global level, given the continuing reliance of aircraft upon carbon fuels, the twin threats of peak oil and climate change offer a very real and existential threat to the long term growth of the industry and the role that it will play in the global economy/society of the second half of the 21^st Century.

The drive towards globalisation coupled with the declining cost of flying and continual growth in affluence have been instrumental in propelling global aviation growth. However, in the future it is resonable to expect that environmental issues may constrain this growth. Thus far, technological and operational improvements within the industry have not been able to offset the environmental and health impacts associated with aviation growth. Ongoing eco-efficiency will not, therefore, be enough, and step change and disruptor technologies are required. Paradoxically, the high cost of developing such technologies, whilst alleviating environmental constraints to growth, could be so great as to push up the cost of flying to the extent that it depresses demand and the role it has come to play in the modern world.

Perhaps, despite the best efforts of the global aviation community, advances in technology  over the next 30 years will not deliver significant reductions in environmntal impacts, leading to a sustainable aviation conundrum. Consequently, step changes may be required in the way the global air transport system is organised, regulated, and operated. New business models (for airlines and airports) may even be required.

We invite papers that seek to address the challenges to aviation outlined above. We would particularly welcome papers that focus on the following:

• Sustainable business models for airports and airlines.
• Novel approaches to specific environmental challenges.
• Climate adaptation.
• Exploring inter-dependencies.
• The resolution of conflicting stakeholder (airport/airline/atc) priorities.
• The potential for step changes in technological development.
• Lock-in to carbon fuels.
• Whole-system responses.
• The sustainability of globalisation.
• The apparent oxymoron that is ‘sustainable aviation’.

Prof. Paul Hooper
Dr. Fiona Raje
Dr. Graeme Heyes
Guest Editors

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• aviation
• airports
• airlines
• sustainable development
• environmental impacts
• climate change
• aircraft noise
• local air quality
• aerospace technologies
• business models
• globalisation