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Air transportation is an essential contributor to the health and well-being of the global economy. Aviation contributes to the quality of life – allowing us to visit friends and relatives, to travel, to experience new places, to shrink the world. Moreover, the aviation industry provides 56 million direct, indirect, and induced jobs worldwide. On the other hand, aviation affects the environment in many ways: people living near airports are exposed to aircraft noise; aircraft engines emit greenhouse gases and other pollutants to the atmosphere; large amounts of energy and water are consumed for the passenger needs and great volumes of waste are produced; streams, rivers, and wetlands may be exposed to pollutants discharged in storm water runoff from airports and many species of plants and animals are expatriated from the vicinity of airports. These negative externalities have been acknowledged during the last decades and the aviation industry is taking mitigation measures at a growing pace. National and international authorities, aviation institutions, aircraft manufacturers, airlines and airports issue advisory documents and manuals, establish environmental standards, apply new technologies and adopt environmental management systems to achieve environmentally-friendly operations in multiple dimensions: noise, air and water quality; energy consumption, waste production and biodiversity preservation. This chapter offers a comprehensive overview of the adverse environmental impact connected with air transportation and the corrective measures adopted by the aviation industry to mitigate this impact.

The aim of this study is to map the interrelations among Human Resource Management (HRM) austerity practices, work deterioration and safety and security risks in commercial aviation, during the 2008-–2016 economic crisis in Europe. We initially deployed an online survey among 120 aviation employees from 40 airports located in 22 European countries. An Economic Crisis Index (ECI) was created for each country, combining the macroeconomic figures during the economic crisis. The results of the survey establish a positive correlation between escalating ECI and the four study constructs and detected statistical differences in particular safety and security variables among the sample groups. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews with 23 aviation experts from the survey sample were conducted to explore in depth the reported changes in working conditions and aviation safety. The research model was then tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), confirming that austerity HRM practices indirectly increase safety and security risks through the mediation of the deteriorated working environment. The results of this study highlight the importance of human factors in the technically dominated area of aviation safety and suggest that safety and security should be addressed under a more systemic approach. These findings forewarn of the cost-minimizing policies currently dominating commercial air transport and their adverse safety and security implications, drawing the attention on new and emerging threats such as pandemics that were underestimated until recently.