Reducing the costs of flights and better airport infrastructure are the top two priorities for European business leaders when it comes to air travel, with decarbonisation only regarded as the fifth most important area of improvement.
A study of 500 bosses from across Europe by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) found that 61 per cent relied on flights for their global connectivity, while the other 39 per cent use short-haul services to travel around the continent.
Around two-fifths (42 per cent) of business leaders said reducing costs was their number one priority, followed by the upgrading of airports (37 per cent), improvement of links between airports and public transport (35 per cent), reducing delays (35 per cent) and decarbonisation (33 per cent).
Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, said: “The cost, quality and sustainability of air transport are important for European business. These expectations have been underlined in IATA’s longstanding calls on governments to support greater efficiency in air transport – implementing the Single European Sky will reduce delays.
“Effective economic regulation of airports will keep costs under control and ensure adequate investments and meaningful government incentives to expand the production capacity of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) are critical to the industry’s commitment to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.”
The survey also revealed the importance that business leaders attach to being located close to an airport with global connections – 89 per cent said that this gives them “a competitive edge” and 82 per cent said their business could not survive without having access to global supply chains through air transport.
More than half (55 per cent) of bosses also said their offices were “purposely located” within one hour of a major hub airport.
“The message from these business leaders is clear and unequivocal: air transport is critical to their business success,” added Walsh. “As European governments plot the way forward amid today’s economic and geopolitical challenges, businesses will be relying on policies that support effective links both within the continent and to Europe’s global trading partners.”
On sustainability, 86 per cent of European business leaders said they were aware of the aviation industry’s commitment to achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050.
They also agreed that the priority for cutting emissions “should be on finding technical solutions for people to continue to fly sustainably”, with the use of SAF the most popular solution (40 per cent) followed by hydrogen (25 per cent).
The least popular options among bosses were pricing carbon into the cost of travel, reducing flying and encouraging rail travel as an alternative to flying.