Life Cycle Assessment and its Application to the Aviation Sector

lives, such as business and leisure. Air transport constitutes an
important part of the global economy and, at the same time, has a
crucial role in both domestic and international transport. It provides
people and goods with connectivity that cannot be challenged by
any other means of transport and therefore offers crucial services
within the modern economy and society. On the other hand, it is the
second biggest polluter among the transport methods. Therefore,
there is a need to switch to more sustainable solutions within the
aviation sector. To choose the right options, a Life cycle assessment
can be a useful tool for evaluating environmental impact. Most of
the studies concerned with the environmental impact of aviation
focus on the pollutants emitted during the flight, ignoring other
direct and indirect effects on the environment. The extraction of raw
materials needed for the construction of aviation infrastructure, its
manufacturing, operation and maintenance and fuel production is
often ignored. In this paper, the first life cycle assessment
methodology is explained, along with its benefits and the important
role played by the mining industry within LCA. In the next part, we
present a possible model for evaluating the overall environmental
impact of air transport, divided into four main parts – production,
operation, maintenance and liquidation, followed by the analysis of
the social aspect of the impact evaluation.