AIRPORT WORLD 2023, ISSUE 06
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Airport profile: Abu Dhabi & Sacramento
Special report: Airports Innovate Review
Plus: ACI news; People Matters; and World Business Partners Extra
The heat is on!
Editor, Joe Bates, reflects on aviation’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint in this ‘sustainability’ themed issue of Airport World.
The global headlines being made by aviation’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint, the launch of Level 5 accreditation in ACI’s Airports Carbon Accreditation programme, and the COP28 agreement for the world to transition away from fossil fuels, show that we couldn’t have timed the ‘sustainability’ theme of this issue better!
At the the third Conference on Aviation and Alternative Fuels (CAAF/3) hosted by ICAO in late November, the aviation sector and over 100 states agreed a global framework to promote sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production in all geographies for fuels used in international aviation to be 5% less carbon intensive by 2030.
A few days later at COP28, ACI launched the new top level in its Airport Carbon Accreditation programme. Level 5 builds on the trajectory of evolution set by the introduction of Levels 4 and 4+ in 2020.
Amsterdam Schiphol, Christchurch, Göteborg Landvetter, Madeira, Malmö and Rotterdam The Hague airports are among the first 10 airports on the planet to reach the new highest certification level in the programme designed to reduce aviation’s carbon footprint.
There is simply no disputing that climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the world today, and as a result the pressure is on airports like never before to be seen to be green and operate in a sustainable manner. This, in effect, means actively working to reduce their impact on the environment to ensure their licence to operate.
The aviation industry’s commitment to Net Zero 2050, the participation of 558 airports from 91 countries in ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation programme, and the general willingness to embrace new clean energy sources, recycle all waste and introduce alternative fuelled vehicles, however, demonstrate that airports are up for the challenge.
Indeed, airports have increasingly become sustainability leaders in recent years, which is remarkable, really, considering that ‘the environment’ didn’t appear to be high on aviation’s agenda – or indeed any government’s agenda – back in the early 1980s when I first started writing about airports.
We talk about some of the ways airports have become sustainability pioneers and some of the key challenges faced by the industry in this ‘sustainability’ themed final 2023 issue of Airport World.
As you would expect, the themed section provides an update about the progress and development of the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme as well as a host of features about the Net Zero 2050 target and how it can be achieved.
We also consider some of the key issues airports should take into account when planning the electrification of ground support vehicles; report on the release of a Green Transition Toolkit for airports; and round-up the latest sustainability stories from around the world.
Elsewhere in the issue, our main airport features are on ambitious Sacramento International Airport in the US and Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) in the UAE, which recenty opened its spectacular new Terminal A.
We provide a comprehensive review of the inaugural Airports Innovate conference in Muscat, which showcased the many faces of innovation going on at airports across the globe.
Providing a view from top, we hear from ACI World director general, Luis Felipe de Oliveira, on recent advocacy wins that have global implications for airports. We also reflect on why sustainabilty matters to staff in our regular ‘people matters’ column; and report on the Q4 news from ACI’s World Business Partners (WBP).
I hope you enjoy our final issue of 2023 and look forward to seeing you at an airport or industry event, somewhere in the world, in 2024.
