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Short-haul aviation - under what conditions is it more environmentally benign than the alternatives?

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/01/2009
<mark>Journal</mark>Technology Analysis and Strategic Management
Issue number1
Volume21
Number of pages13
Pages (from-to)115-127
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Short-haul aviation is faced with important challenges to its future: airport congestion and security delays reducing its time-competitiveness, steadily increasing fuel price and the likely imposition of carbon taxes eating into its margins. Increasingly, short-haul aviation is demonised by environmental activists and some politicians. However many question whether the alternatives are better, similar or worse, from the point of view of greenhouse gas emissions. This paper looks at alternatives to short-haul aviation in terms of their time-competitiveness, energy use and emissions. It illustrates some of the complexities of making comparisons between modes. The paper concludes there is no single technology that can be shown to be 'better' than short-haul aviation in all applications but there are many situations where land-based transport systems are competitive with short-haul journey times and have significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions.