Abstract
The aviation sector is one of the fastest growing emitters of greenhouse gases worldwide. In addition, airports have important local environmental impacts, mainly in the form of noise pollution and deterioration in air quality. Although noise nuisance in the vicinity of airports is recognized as an important problem of the urban environment which is often addressed by regulation, other environmental problems associated with aviation are less widely acknowledged. In the climate debate, the importance of which is rising, aviation has remained under the radar for decades. In the present paper, we use the case of Brussels Airport (Belgium) to demonstrate that the local perception of air travel-related environmental problems may be heavily influenced by the communication strategy of the airport company in question. Basing our analysis on publicly available data, communication initiatives, media reports, and policy documents, we find that (1) the noise impact of aviation is recognized and mainly described in an institutionalized format, (2) the impact of aviation on local air quality is ignored, and (3) the communication on climate impact shows little correspondence or concern with the actual effects. These findings are relevant for other airports and sectors, since the type of environmental communication produced by airport companies can also be observed elsewhere.
Highlights
On 20 June 2018, Brussels Airport announced that it had achieved its goal of becoming carbon-neutral, and the company’s CEO pointed to their efforts to limit the impact on the environment, and to their ambitions to further develop the airport in a sustainable way [1]
In this paper we examined the interrelations between environmental impact, social debate and environmental communication with regard to airports, applied to the case of Brussels Airport
Our research questions focused on the extent to which real environmental effects, and the communication about them, are in line with each other and whether perceptions of the airport’s environmental impact are guided by the communication strategy of the airport company itself
Summary
On 20 June 2018, Brussels Airport announced that it had achieved its goal of becoming carbon-neutral, and the company’s CEO pointed to their efforts to limit the impact on the environment, and to their ambitions to further develop the airport in a sustainable way [1]. The communication from Brussels Airport quoted above contrasts sharply with recent developments in climate debates and policies, which suggest that effectively tackling global warming is incompatible with the unabated growth of aviation [5]. Building on this observation, we first outline the ongoing public debates and the actual environmental impact of the air traffic facilitated by Brussels Airport. The current research is a case study, we claim that it is representative of a broader and globally relevant problem, one that can be extended to other airports, and to environmental accreditation programmes and the environmental communication strategies of other actors
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