The aviation industry

The aviation industry is a vital contribution to the global economy's growth. The industry generates over 58 million job opportunities and other economic activity worth $2.4 trillion every year (Abeyratne, 2015). The aviation industry is wonderful for the following reasons: it brings together business partners, friends, and families; it brings people from all over the world with various ideas together. Also, it allows people to travel everywhere in a short period of time. Furthermore, it has reduced the vast world to the size of a hamlet, opening up vast and great chances for many people. Nevertheless, the industry faces three major issues: convenience, safety, and financial and fiscal sustainability (Abeyratne, 2015). This paper elaborates the three concerns in detail.

The issue of safety

Flight safety is a pertinent question, and a lot has been achieved about this concern. Currently, flights are extremely safe, something different from the past. Flying in the past was dangerous. However, from the start, governments held a standard view that the issue should never be a competitive issue (Koster, 2016). All stakeholders have demonstrated great collaboration regarding this matter. The year 2013 recorded 36.4 million flights accompanied by only 16 fatal accidents (Morimoto et al., 2017). If an individual traveled in an airplane, the probability of getting involved in an accident was one out of 2.4 million. Also, out of the three billion plane passengers, only 210 fell victims of fatal accidents (Morimoto et al., 2017). Therefore, air travel is one of the best transport options in the world. However, unfortunate accidents do occur (Beudeker, 2015). The two accidents involving the Malaysian flights are unfathomable, and still, the families and relatives are nursing wounds of the demise of their loved one. The events which befell the MH 17 and MH 370 are among the worst tragedies to hit the airline industry (Pritchard, 2016). The MH 17 enlightened the world and stakeholders in the aviation sector of the importance for accurate information while flying over conflict-hit zones. The world was shocked that a civilian passenger jet could be shot down in an airspace deemed safe (Pritchard, 2016). The need for better information regarding conflict regions is paramount to avoid the re-occurrence of such fatalities, and the governments of various countries need to step up their efforts to make the security of flights a reality (Pritchard, 2016).

Besides, governments need to intervene and establish standards for a global protocol in monitoring the scheme, manufacture, and distribution of armaments of anti-craft capacity (Pritchard, 2016). There are controls for other weapons such as nuclear warheads, land mines, chemical, etc. and there is no reason of not having anti-craft gun regulations (Pritchard, 2016).

The issue of passenger experience

Millions of people travel through flights every day. From the business perspective, the travels should be convenient and hassle-free. It is appreciable that tremendous improvements have been achieved over the years (Beudeker, 2015). The airlines provide a broad range of alternatives from the very basic to luxurious services. However, travelers have also experienced several moments of frustration with air operations and policies adopted (Beudeker, 2015). Some of the issues regarding customer experience include the following: first, lack of a framework on how to share critical data among all stakeholders especially passengers in air travels. Secondly, a better approach to security matters based on the details of the traveler (Beudeker, 2015).

The sustainability factor

The future of aviation will be faint if sustainability is not one of the driving forces. Sustainability takes two dimensions, one, the financial, and two, environmental issues. First, any business must strive to preserve and sustain the environment. Environmental sustainability is an urgent problem to airlines which use fuel, and almost all of them are culprits to this weakness (Su, 2015). However, the players have been committed to changing the situation with ambitious objectives from 2020. They project that the emissions will be carbon neutral. Moreover, the fundamental solution to fuel-powered is technology. Modern planes come with fuel reduction efficiency of up to 20-30%, unlike the earlier models (Xiong et al., 2017). The airline industry has invested vast sums of money in making environmental conservation a reality. Financial element is the second facet of sustainability. Profitability defines sustainability in this business (Zhang, Lin, & Shang, 2017). Over the past several years, companies in the aviation ventures only broke even. It is a very competitive market, and players invest huge capital (Randt, Jessberger & Ploetner, 2015). Nevertheless, that is not to say that people do not raise profits from the business. Stock prices in air transport are volatile. Some companies operating in a conducive environment make modest profits especially in the United States after a frustrating decade which began with the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, in New York (Randt, Jessberger & Ploetner, 2015). However, airlines make around $6 on average from every passenger. From revenue of $750, a net profit of $18 billion is achievable. It is not a modest margin, but it can sustain the players in the market (Randt, Jessberger & Ploetner, 2015).

In conclusion

The future of the sector is promising to go as per the recent trends which have record impressive improvements. The growing demand for air transport irrespective of the ever-fluctuating economic conditions depicts that the world's quest for connectivity through air travel is growing. There is a lot of hope for the sector in the future.

References

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Liu, X., Zhou, D., Zhou, P., & Wang, Q. (2017). What drives CO 2 emissions from China’s civil aviation? An exploration using a new generalized PDA method. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 99, 30-45.

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