Aviation
The Potential of E-fuels to Decarbonise Ships and Aircraft
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
23 January 2023
- Introduce carbon pricing for shipping and aviation.
- Scale up the production of low-carbon e-fuel through targeted policies.
- Accelerate the deployment of electrolyser and renewable electricity generation capacity.
- Regulate the lifecycle emissions intensity of e-fuels, including non-CO2 emissions.
How the war in Ukraine impacts aviation – and what to do about it
Policy Brief, Policy Insights,
22 December 2022
- Investment and market reforms fueled Ukraine's aviation sector before the war.
- The war has shut down civil aviation in Ukraine and destroyed its airports.
- War-related airspace closures force international flights onto longer routes, resulting in longer travel times, higher fuel costs and added carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
- The energy crisis unleashed by the war drives up ticket prices, potentially reducing demand and threatening aviation's recovery from the pandemic.
- The war's short-term impacts on air travel could trigger long-lasting changes in international aviation.
- Restoring Ukraine's air connectivity after the war hinges on rebuilding destroyed aviation infrastructure.
- Ending aviation's dependency on fossil fuels can make the sector more resilient to future crises.
Decarbonising Air Transport
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
28 July 2021
- Integrate clear decarbonisation requirements into government support packages helping the sector recover from the Covid-19 crisis.
- Establish a clear long-term vision for decarbonising air transport by setting and monitoring emissions reduction targets aligned with the Paris Agreement.
- Support an international approach to mitigating the climate change impacts of aviation while implementing decarbonisation policies domestically and on a regional level.
- Introduce carbon pricing in aviation to drive an efficient transition to a greener aviation sector.
- Put in place timely and ambitious fuel quality requirements to encourage the take up of sustainable aviation fuels.
- Strengthen the effectiveness of regulatory frameworks to further energy efficiency improvements of aircraft.
- Encourage research, development and deployment of alternative propulsion systems and clean fuels, supported by clear policy frameworks for de-risking industry investments to ramp up fuel production.
- Factor in the non-CO2 climate impacts of air transport when designing decarbonisation policies.
Ready for Take-off? Integrating Drones into the Transport System
Research Report, Policy Insights,
23 February 2021
- Establish clear objectives and priorities for the introduction of drone transport by identifying the best first use cases.
- Design a communication strategy that directly addresses public concerns.
- Clarify and develop drones’ status within the broader framework of aerospace regulation.
- Co‑ordinate with the drone industry to inform investment, development, and equitable policy making.
- Foster the emergence of civil aviation authorities with interdisciplinary competencies and capabilities in order to integrate drones into the transport system.
- Support the design and implementation of a robust Unmanned Air Traffic Management system.
- Develop methods for assessing the impact of drones’ full life cycle on the environment.
- Incorporate drone operations into long-term urban planning strategy using data and predictive models.
Government Support Measures for Domestic Air Connectivity
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
10 December 2018
- Establish explicit domestic transport connectivity objectives.
- Assess the impacts of potential intervention in the aviation market.
- Monitor and periodically evaluate the effectiveness of support for domestic air connectivity.
- Make the award of subsidies transparent.
- Keep support programmes simple.
- Provide incentives to create value-for-money.
- Weigh the benefits of safeguarding slots at congested airports against the costs of denying them to more profitable services.
Surface Access to Airports
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
25 October 2018
- Integrate the new airport into strategic plans for sustainable urban transport.
- Prioritise access by public transport in the layout of the airport terminal.
- Establish priorities for investment in public transport links to the airport.
- Preserve alignments for infrastructure than can only be funded later on.
- Plan now for links that will serve both developments on the old airport site and the new airport.
- Integrate new public transport links with existing networks seamlessly.
- Create the framework for investment in fast, seamless, reliable rail or metro links.
- Explore a range of potential funding options for premium rail or metro services.
- Maintain today’s world-class long distance coach services.
- Fund public transport investments with the potential to relieve road congestion and air pollution.
Defining, Measuring and Improving Air Connectivity
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
16 May 2018
- Adapt the use of connectivity metrics to specific policy challenges.
- Use a combination of approaches to assess potential knock-on effects that policy or strategy changes may have on air connectivity.
- Involve all aviation stakeholders in the policy process of developing air connectivity metrics.
- Make systematic use of air connectivity metrics to evaluate the performance of the national aviation sector and improve decision-making.
Capacity Building through Efficient Use of Existing Airport Infrastructure
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
30 October 2017
- Whilst governments should act cautiously and avoid intervention unless there are strong reasons for it, airports, airlines, air navigation service providers, and regulators need to pursue all possible technical innovations to improve the utilisation of airport capacity. Collaborative decision-making is critical to achieving optimal outcomes.
- Governments should consider policies improving air connectivity alongside all impacts of air transport, in particular in terms of noise and air pollution impacts on local communities.
- Governments should constantly re-evaluate caps on aircraft movements that are designed to contain noise impacts, as technological improvements make it possible to reduce noise nuisance while allowing for more aircraft operations.
- IATA WSG should continue to evolve to facilitate more efficient use of scarce airport capacity, ultimately benefitting passengers and other users of aviation. Authorities should ensure that the rules are applied in practice as intended.
- Any system of slot allocation at congested airports needs to take account of the potential benefits of competition. When slots are allocated to new entrants they should be in sufficient quantity to support viable business models.
- The potential to use primary slot auctioning to improve welfare outcomes at congested airports should not be ruled out. To make decisions on primary slot auctioning, the transfer of rents needs to be considered explicitly, and steps taken to avoid excessive disruption to incumbent airlines.
- Secondary slot trading should be allowed and facilitated for more efficient utilisation of capacity.
- Congested airports should eliminate price discrimination against large aircraft wherever such discrimination is present.
ITF signs path-breaking agreements on road safety, sustainable development, decarbonising aviation and open data
Media Release,
7 June 2017
Airport Site Selection
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
30 May 2017
- The process should start with an assessment of need for new infrastructure.
- Comparable assessments should be undertaken for a range of feasible options.
- Selection criteria need to examine all positive and negative impacts of airport capacity expansion.
- Assessments need to incorporate considerations of risk and uncertainty.
- The process needs to be clear, transparent, collaborative, and trade-offs need to be explicitly considered.
ITF Transport Outlook 2017
Transport Outlook, Policy Insights,
29 January 2017
- The 2016 Paris climate agreement must be translated into concrete actions for the transport sector.
- Policy will need to embrace and respond to disruptive innovation in transport.
- Reducing CO2 from urban mobility needs more than better vehicle and fuel technology.
- Targeted land-use policies can reduce the transport infrastructure needed to provide more equitable access in cities.
- Governments need to develop planning tools to adapt to uncertainties created by changing patterns of consumption, production and distribution.
Airport Demand Forecasting for Long-Term Planning
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
6 July 2016
- Use quantitative methods to analyse the key drivers of airport demand.
- Use expert guidance to help interpret the quantitative results.
- Quality-assure the analysis and counter the risks of optimism bias.
- Reflect the risks and uncertainties that arise in even the best forecasts.
- Make better use of demand forecasts in airport infrastructure planning.
Competitive Interaction between Airports, Airlines and High-Speed Rail
Roundtable Report,
4 November 2009
Concurrence et interactions entre aéroports, services de transports aériens et ferroviaires
Roundtable Report,
1 January 2009