- Due to COVID-19, there was a long period of low aerial mobility leading to a noticeable decrease in the use of high-capacity aircraft and a considerable increase in the use of regional aircraft providing effective connections on essential routes without discontinuity. After the COVID outbreak and the restrictions in the skies of the countries affected by the Ukrainian crisis, it is expected an enormous traffic demand in the following decades. Consequently, the operators will excessively increase the average capacity of the aircraft to reduce the unit operating costs per seat. From this perspective, a reduction in the frequency of flights to and from some destinations is anticipated along with limited utilization of the smaller airports due to their incapability to accommodate high-capacity aircrafts.
- In addition, aviation slowly but steadily has taken the path of decarbonization toward sustainable sources of energy. Society requires a rapid and global energy transition away from fossil fuels and towards sustainable sources of energy, some of which are technologically mature but need massive scaling up whilst, unlike most other sectors, aviation has no off-the-shelf fix. The next three decades will enable a progressive entering into the third era of aviation marked with sustainable fuels, electric and hybrid flights, and, eventually, zero carbon connectivity.
