UK’s Aviation Sector Rising Up To The Decarbonization Challenge

The Aviation Industry of the United Kingdom is the third largest in the world. The industry contributes to more than £22 billion to the UK economy and employs more than 230,000 people. By the year 2050, the passenger traffic in the country is expected to rise from the current 284 million (31 December 2018) to at least 435 million putting excessive pressure on the aviation infrastructure of the country. The growth of the sector, however, also brings with it the additional problems carbon emissions while still being one of the lowest polluting of all industries in the world. The global aviation industry as a whole emitted about 918 million tons of carbon dioxide in the year 2018 amounting to about 2.4 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the world. This translates into 88 grams of carbon dioxide revenue passenger kilometre globally with aviation in Europe emitting an average of 99.8 g per kilometre of carbon dioxide per passenger and United States of America emitting 102 grams of carbon dioxide per revenue passenger kilometer.

The emissions of the aviation industry are different from that of the emissions from other industries. Aircraft engines, especially the modern turboprop and turbofan engines are some of the most efficient mechanical devices in the world; still, they produce copious amounts of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, unburnt hydrocarbons and carbon black. Other than that, the effects of emitted chemicals on the upper atmosphere is different from that of emissions in the lower part of the atmosphere, which has a compounding effect as far as global warming is concerned. These estimates also do not take into account the ground support infrastructure emissions, which also contribute significant amounts of greenhouse emissions. Aircrafts also cause significant amounts of noise and heat pollution which, though significant in their impact on the environment, are often left out from the estimates made to gauge the impact of the aviation industry on the environment.

There are several measures though that have been envisaged to improve the performance of the aviation industry on the environmental front. The United Kingdom government had instituted a commission to understand the abatement potential of emissions from technological, operational and air traffic management standpoint. The findings estimate that the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions is possible through technology, operational and air traffic management improvements. Ultra-high bypass ratio turbofan engines, hybrid-electric propulsion, boundary layer ingestion, composite carbon-fibre materials, 15 aspect ratio wing and riblets are some of the current technological innovations that promise to bring about significant change in fuel consumption characteristics of modern aircraft with ensuing benefits in cost reduction per passenger and reduction in emissions. On the operational front higher Mach number, long-range to maximum range cruise speed, aircraft design for 0.06 lower cruise, E-tug & E-taxi at airports and engine inoperative taxi are some of the measures that will help in reducing energy consumption in the industry. On the air traffic management side, reduced diversion hold, reduced taxi time, optimum track, cruise climb, and continuous descent can help bring down emissions in the aviation industry. The findings also estimated that these technological advancements have the maximum potential in bringing about fuel efficiency and emission improvements in the industry, followed by aircraft operational improvement techniques which are followed by air traffic management improvements. The estimates put the timeline for such improvements between 2030 to 2050 between which it is estimated that 80 per cent improvements will take place on all the three fronts in the industry as a whole.

Environment campaigners, however, point out that the above measures are clearly not sufficient as they will be outweighed by the significant growth that is taking place in the number of air travellers every year. They state that the only real solution to the problem is if a smaller number of people decide to fly every year. Aviation authorities also draw flak on a number of other measures being implemented by the aviation industry to bring about positive impact on the emission front, especially the use of larger aircrafts. The Airbus company has often advertised its flagship product, the A380 aircraft, as the greenest jet ever underpinning on its ability to fly a large number of passengers, which would theoretically bring down the fuel consumption per passenger. The environment campaigners point out that the economies of scale to benefit of aircraft like A380 and B747 are achievable only when these aircrafts fly at full capacity, which ironically is not always the case. A smaller capacity aircraft is more likely to fly full capacity than a larger aircraft based on seating capacity, forcing the larger aircraft to price at a discount in the in order to achieve full capacity consistently;Â the profitability figures of these aircrafts in which case will be at par with the smaller aircrafts, if not lower. Again, a small capacity aircraft with a full load will emit less carbon dioxide than a larger aircraft flying the same number of passengers.

The European Union has recently enacted stringent environment regulations across all sectors in order to combat pollution and making the continent increasingly more carbon neutral. However, in the aviation industry it is a difficult to enforce any environmental regulations. Through technological improvements, the industry has by itself brought about significant fuel economy and lower greenhouse gas emissions in the past four decades although the road ahead seems difficult given the time constraints being stipulated by the various regulations cleared by the European Union. Emission trading approach and making flying less incentivising for flyers may be the only two approaches which could have any practical impact in reducing the emissions from this sector. However, restricting the growth of the Airline industry is a hotly debated topic with may advocating that the cost-benefit analysis is tilted towards promoting the growth in the industry in the larger interest of the economic development of the country. Asking airlines to convert all of their non-turbine fuel needs to electric infrastructure could in the short run help them reduce their emissions, but in the long to very long time periods, meaningful gains can only be made through technological advancements in aircraft technology, smart logistical handling and efficient support infrastructure.

Several industry bodies in the United Kingdom like Sustainable Aviation, however, believe that meaningful gains can be made by the industry by itself while not restricting growth. It believes that industry can take measures like making fuel from rubbish and plant more trees to offset its carbon emissions, which could amount to as much as 30 million tons of less carbon dioxide emitted per year. The body also points out that faster switching from older generation aircrafts to the new generation ones would also bring about significant reductions in greenhouse emissions in the short run. UK’s Aviation sectorUK’s Aviation sector