Environmentally sustainable practices at UK airports

In response to growing concerns about rising energy bills, long-term energy security and the environmental impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, airport operators worldwide are increasingly implementing new sustainable practices to help reduce costs, increase efficiency and reduce their environmental impacts. These initiatives include the installation of on-site wind turbines, biomass plants, and ‘smart' heating and lighting systems as well as other ‘green' initiatives including rainwater harvesting initiatives, improved recycling facilities and financial incentives to encourage staff to travel to work by modes other than the private car. Drawing on specific examples, this paper examines the ways in which UK airports have responded to the challenge of reducing the environmental impacts of operations for which they are directly responsible by implementing green and sustainable energy and working practices. The paper concludes by discussing the importance of sustainable airport practices in light of future growth in key emerging aviation markets

The role of dedicated freighter aircraft in the provision of global airfreight services

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.In 2014, over 51 million tonnes of cargo, valued at over US$6.8 trillion, was flown around the world. Approximately 56% of this total (by global revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs)) was flown on dedicated freighter aircraft which were either manufactured specifically for this purpose or converted from passenger use. The remaining 44% (by total global RTK) travelled as belly-freight in the holds of passenger flights or on combi (combination) or QC (quick change) aircraft that can accommodate both passengers and freight. Although both sources of capacity offer the same basic service – the aerial carriage of time sensitive and/or high value-to-weight goods – they exhibit different cost structures, operating characteristics and spatial patterns of demand and supply. Using empirical data on the contemporary scale and scope of global freighter operations, this paper examines the role of dedicated freighter aircraft in the provision of global airfreight services and identifies a range of exogenous and internal factors which may affect the demand and supply side characteristics of all-cargo air services in the future

Gender on the flightdeck: experiences of women commercial airline pilots in the UK

The reasons for, and the implications arising from, the underrepresentation of women on the flightdeck of commercial aircraft continues to challenge national Governments, the aviation industry, and the academic community. Although some airlines have made concerted efforts to improve the gender balance of their flightcrew, womens' participation in the profession remains low. Of the 130,000 airline pilots worldwide only 4000 (3%) are women and only 450 hold the command of Captain. The dominant historical discourse of airline pilots as assertive masculine figures may act to dissuade women from pursuing a career on the flightdeck and women pilots are subjected to sexist remarks and behaviour from colleagues and passengers. Given commercial aviation's increasing growth worldwide and the concurrent increase in demand for highly skilled labour, the inability to recruit and retain women pilots represents a significant problem for both the sector and the wider economy as it will constrain growth, hinder aviation's expansion by failing to capitalise on women's skill sets, and delay the achievement of gender equality. Understanding the experiences of flightcrew is therefore vital in addressing this important research problem. Through the use of in-depth interviews with men and women flightcrew in the UK, the research identifies a number of obstacles to greater female participation and recommends that airlines not only focus on gender differences in learning, leadership and communication but that they also take steps to more effectively manage diversity in their workforce and actively promote positive representations of women flightcrew both within and beyond their organisation

The market development of avaition biofuel: drivers and constraints

Aviation biofuel is technically viable and nearing the commercial stage. In the last ten years, biofuels have moved from relative obscurity to a point where certain types of fuel have become fully certified for commercial use in up to 50% blends with standard jet fuel and commercial partnerships between airlines and biofuel producers are being established. Yet despite numerous successful test flights, aviation biofuels have yet to become widely commercialised. Drawing on the findings of in-depth interviews with leading global aviation biofuel stakeholders undertaken between October and December 2011, this paper identifies and examines the perceived factors that are affecting the market development of biofuels for aviation. The paper illustrates that market development is being driven by the combined effects of rising jet fuel prices, the potential future impact of emissions legislation and concerns about fuel (in)security. However, commercialisation is being constrained by high production costs, limited availability of suitable feedstocks, uncertainty surrounding the definition of the sustainability criteria, and a perceived lack of both national and international political and policy support for aviation biofuel. The implications of these findings for commercial aviation and the future development of global market for aviation biofuel market are discussed

Environmental technology and the future of flight

Purpose To examine the role of new aeronautical technologies in improving commercial aviation’s environmental performance. Methodology/approach Reviews the environmental improvements that may be conferred through the adoption of alternative aviation fuels and new airframe, engine and navigation technologies. Findings Although aeronautical technologies have evolved considerably since the earliest days of powered flight, the aviation industry is now reaching a point of diminishing returns as growing global consumer demand for air transport outstrips incremental improvements in environmental efficiency. The chapter describes some of the technological interventions that are being pursued to improve aviation’s environmental performance and discusses the extent to which these innovations will help to deliver a more sustainable aviation industry

On being aeromobile: airline passengers and the affective experiences of flight

The advent of heavier-than-air powered flight and the subsequent inauguration of regular passenger air services at the beginning of the twentieth century transformed not only the practical geographies but also the affective human experiences of travelling. Aircraft enabled passengers to accomplish journeys, which would once have taken many days or weeks to complete, in a matter of hours, and transformed the sensory experiences of being mobile. However, while much has been written about the development of global commercial aviation and the metaphorical compression of time and space air travel has effected, research into the individual embodied human experiences of being aeromobile remains relatively scarce. Drawing on powerful theoretical arguments inspired by the mobilities turn within the social sciences and recent concern with the ‘affective’ dimensions of everyday life, this paper uses firsthand written historical records of passengers’ experiences of travelling by air during the 1920s and 1930s to uncover the diverse kin/aesthetic and affective experiences of flight. While recognising that such experiences are shaped, at least in part, by gender, age, nationality, race, and past experiences of air travel, passengers’ descriptions of the unique bodily (dis)comforts, fears, and anxieties associated with flying are used to illustrate how aeromobile bodies experience their airborne environment in ways which have yet to be adequately addressed. The paper concludes by calling for a more nuanced understanding of air travel that recognises that the advent of powered flight has fundamentally changed our perceptions of time, space, distance, and speed, and transformed what it means to be mobile

Pests on a plane: airports and the fight against infectious disease

Regular flyers are all too aware that air travel can, on occasion, be bad for your health. Jetlag, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), airsickness, dehydration, ear pain, and respiratory infections are just some of the conditions that are reported. Yet while seatbased exercises, air conditioning filters, flight socks, earplugs, boiled sweets, inflatable pillows, and eyeshades may lessen some of the risks and discomfort associated with flying, the warm, pressurised, sealed cabins of passenger aircraft continue to offer the perfect environment in which certain pests and diseases may thrive and spread. Medical journals are replete with stories of airline passengers contracting a range of infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, meningitis, measles, and influenza, from fellow (infected) travellers, while the rapid spread of the SARS virus to over 25 countries around the world in 2003 was attributed, in part, to the long-haul airline network. Since the birth of commercial aviation at the beginning of the twentieth century, airports have found themselves at the forefront of a worldwide battle against the spread of tropical and infectious diseases, and a range of public health interventions have been deployed to try and prevent pests and diseases being transported around the world aboard aircraft. This article reviews some of the public health directives that were devised to prevent the spread of disease by air and explains their implications for the design and operation of airports

Aeromobile elites: private business aviation and the global economy

Aeromobile elites: private business aviation and the global econom

Air craft: producing UK airspace

Air craft: producing UK airspac

Global networks before globalisation: imperial airways and the development of long-haul air routes

From its formation in 1924 to its takeover in 1940, Britain's Imperial Airways forged a network of longdistance air routes around the world that knitted the British Empire together by air for the first time and paved the way for a new age of aeromobility. While transport historians have long recognised the importance of these early services to the administration of Empire and the future development of international civil aviation, the unique spatialities of Imperial Airways' services have received scant geographical attention. By charting the expansion of Imperial's international route network in the 1920s and 1930s, this paper provides an insight into the formation and operation of a global aerial network that helped usher in a new era of globalisation