Will Efficiencies In Aviation Sector Make Possible Cheap International Flights?

Aviation generates air and noise pollution. The exhaust gases during the flight are the most visible forms of air pollution but pollution is also caused by the thermal conditioning of the airports and buildings associated with the aviation operations, the ground vehicles used in the aviation sector and a number of in-flight services offered by the airlines. With the consciousness of the environmental damage increasing significantly, there have been all-encompassing efforts to reduce the levels of emissions through better technological interventions, search for the alternative fuels, better operational efficiencies and a number of other measures. These efficiencies have made it possible for airlines to offer cheap international flights to customers.

With the cheap air tickets becoming a reality, the market for aviation has increased considerably. The thrust of the globalization and liberalization of the economies has further added to the increase in the international aviation. But, this increase of the flights traffic has certain misgivings on the environment front since these off-set the gains achieved on the efficiency front. This is evident from a number of studies that the global increase in the civil aviation has led to the increase in the emissions. The plying of the airplanes in or close to the stratosphere has also meant that the gases remain in the atmosphere for a longer duration since it is a dynamically stable layer of the atmosphere where there is no regular convection of the air currents. These are some of the instances where the increase in aviation has led to more environment damage despite measures being taken at the level of manufacturing of airplanes to use better technologies, alternative fuels and highly efficient operations.

The question now is whether the level of efficiencies will rise to such levels where the emissions are reduced despite the increase in air travel? Will the people continue to get the cheap international flights or will they end up paying more as environment costs? The chance of cheap air tickets becoming costly looks to be a more likely scenario. There are already suggestions that the airline industry must end the incentives that they provide to their customers which increase the demand for air travel.  Airplanes have a long life and, therefore, even if there is a technological improvement, its introduction in the existing fleet of aircraft might be highly restricted. This means that the far reaching improvements will happen only in the long term when continued upgrading of technologies will significantly reduce dependence of environmentally damaging processes.