Valuing air transportation and sustainability from a public perspective: Evidence from the United Kingdom and the United States

a r t i c l e i n f o One issue with air transportation and sustainability is that although aviation could be considered economically and socially sustainable, it does generate environmental concerns. The aim of this paper is to examine public attitudes towards air transportation and sustainability, in order to determine how individuals value sustainability in relation to air travel. This empirical paper is based on two large survey data sets, one from the East Midlands region of the United Kingdom and one from the East Coast of the United States. After an initial review of relevant literature and policy, a range of attitudinal statements from the surveys are examined. These statements cover the economic and social benefits of air transportation, the contribution of air travel to climate change, and environmental responses. The analysis demonstrates the high value individuals put on the economic and social sustainability aspects of air transportation. Although many acknowledge aviation's contribution to climate change, few are willing to respond in terms of paying more to offset the negative environmental effects of aviation or to fly less. When analysing the value of sustainability by population subgroup , flight frequency and gender are highlighted as key variables in terms of environmental attitudes. The notion of sustainable development has become integral to transportation policy and practice in recent years. Typically defined as " development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs " (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987), sustainable development has been translated from a global ideal into national policies such as the Sustainable Development Strategy (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2005) in the United Kingdom (UK) and the more recent Sustainable Communities (HUD–DOT–EPA, 2012) focus in the United States of America (US). This paper aims to examine public attitudes towards air transportation and sustainability, in order to determine how individuals value sustainability in relation to air travel. It is organised as follows. Initially the literature is reviewed that relates to the valuation and measurement of sustainability and attitudes towards flying and climate change. The research questions and methods are then presented. The analysis is based on two air travel survey datasets conducted in the UK and the US respectively. The Findings and discussion section consists of analysis of air transportation and sustainability attitudinal statements of the overall sample and then by …