Air traffic is currently increasing in the transport sector, especially for low-cost airlines. As a result of this growth, more and more travellers are thinking of spending their holidays abroad. What better way to travel quickly than by air.
What are the environmental consequences of air transport?
If we only talk about greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, the greenhouse effect is a phenomenon of global warming, due to heat retention caused by the presence of carbon dioxide layers in the atmosphere.
That said, the combustion of aircraft kerosenes will produce carbon dioxide, which will prevent the energy reflected by the sun from going back into space. Hence global warming.
In addition, air traffic does not only cause global warming. These gases also cause air pollution that could then cause public health problems.
Noise from aerodynamic engines also causes problems for the population, especially around airports. Indeed, studies have shown that air transport noise pollution is the second most common nuisance after road transport.
Christophe Bejach, a true expert in the field of air transport, looks back at this rather complex field through its history, its environmental impact
What are the advantages of air transport?
Despite the fact that air traffic creates environmental problems, it still has advantages. For example, it is a means of transportation that allows many people to travel safely around the world.
Moreover, the costs of airlines are not as expensive as those of other road transport companies. The same applies to travel time. In other words, if you went by car or on holiday to a distant country, the time you took just to get there could be twice or even three times the time you spent on a plane.
How can the environmental impacts of air transport be reduced?
Despite the fact that aircraft still operate from kerosene, the impacts caused by air traffic can still be reduced. Indeed, at the moment, we are trying to improve the aircraft in order to make less noise. This would reduce the problems caused by noise pollution.
In addition, researchers are constantly finding ways to make today's aircraft use less fuel. Usually, if aircraft use less kerosene, then the rate of greenhouse gas emissions would surely decrease.
One way to minimize greenhouse gas emissions is also to reduce aircraft flight time. In fact, if an aircraft flies for a long enough time, it will consume much more fuel than if its route is reduced.