ABSTRACT
Until recently, addressing the environmental externalities associated with the use of the private car and single occupancy vehicles has been the focus of the airport ground access policies worldwide. However, with the emerging unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, which have already changed the way we live, work, and travel, encouraging a change in commuter behavior has become even more important. This has necessitated that existing strategies be reconsidered in favor of adapting to a highly uncertain ‘‘COVID-19 world.'' Historically, there has been a dearth of literature relating to airport employees' ground access even though as a group employees represent an important segment of airport users with complex access requirements. This paper therefore focuses on airport employee related airport ground access strategies considering an emerging understanding of the future impacts of COVID-19 on global air travel. Pre-COVID strategies are investigated by conducting a documentary analysis of the most recent ground access strategies of 27 UK airports. The findings reveal that airport ground access strategies were mainly focused on setting targets and producing policy measures in favor of reducing car use and increasing the use of more sustainable transport modes including public transport, car sharing, and active travel (walking, cycling). However, measures encouraging public transport and car sharing will be more difficult to implement because of social distancing and fear of proximity to others. Instead, initiatives encouraging remote working, active travel, and improved staff awareness will be at the forefront of the future ground access strategy development. © National Academy of Sciences: Transportation Research Board 2021.
ABSTRACT
The global COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the interconnectivity and interdependence of the modern world economy and international society’s epidemio-logical vulnerability to the global transmission of human infectious diseases by air travel. The rapid formulation of new pandemic policy responses for the air transport industry at both a national and international level revealed complex tensions between mandatory ‘stay-at-home’ public health interventions and international travel restrictions, which were designed to limit the virus’s spread but which dramatically disrupted everyday social activities, and political and economic imperatives to reopen global air travel as quickly as possible. The aim of this chapter is to examine the development of global policies for the air transport industry from the perspective of aviation public health policy, airline passengers, air freight and financial support for airline and airport operators. © 2022 by Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
The ownership of commercial airports is of strategic national, commercial and political importance. Airport ownership directly influences the planning, development, policy and management activities that are undertaken at the site and the extent to which central government can influence them. Historically, local Government ownership and operation of UK municipal airports permitted the implementation of long-term development plans and ensured, as far as possible, that local airports met the needs of the communities they served. The privatisation of UK airports following the 1986 Airports Act resulted in the model of UK airport ownership quickly changing from one of publically-owned utility to privately-owned commercial asset. In light of current debates surrounding the future viability of UK regional airports following the COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented falls in passenger numbers, the aim of this paper is to examine the evolution of UK airport ownership between 1986 and 2020. The findings of the empirical research reveal that since 2012 the trend of full private sector ownership of airports has changed with local authorities increasingly re-investing in municipal facilities in partnership with private consortia. The implications of these changing ownership dynamics, both for airports but also the communities and regions they serve, in the post-COVID era, are discussed. © 2020