Aviation is one of the world’s great connectors of people, enabling a vast amount of trade and tourism. Haldane Dodd Executive Director, ATAG
Aviation enhances the prosperity of the communities it serves and provides jobs, economic growth and opportunities. It offers lifelines for those living in remote places, enables the transport of time-sensitive goods, provides vital relief when disaster strikes and when there is an urgent need to move medical supplies and personnel, such as during the critical stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
These benefits also have an environmental cost. For aviation to grow sustainably, it is vital that we balance the advantages of growth in air travel with the responsibility to pursue action on climate change.
In 2015, the United Nations announced the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was accompanied by a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Aviation has a role to play in 15 of these goals.
In 2017, ATAG released a report entitled Flying in Formation. This serves as a guide to help place the SDGs in an aviation context and provides ideas for inclusion of them into corporate strategies.
Sustainable development is about taking the three priorities of the economy, society and the environment and finding ways of balancing these to produce the results that will benefit most people.
In early 2026 the United Nations Decade of Sustainable Transport was launched, which will run until 2035. It calls for collective action and alignment of strategies and investments in support of an accessible, efficient, environmentally sustainable and resilient transport system.
As part of the UN Decade, ATAG is raising awareness of of aviation’s commitment to fostering the SDGs around the world and the associated social, environmental and economic benefits. ATAG has produced a publication - The role of civil aviation in the United Nations Decade of Sustainable Transport – which highlights contributions from across the air transport sector. It includes guest articles from airline and airport associations, manufacturers and SAF providers.
Another way in which ATAG works to raise awareness of sustainable development and aviation’s role is via a publication issued every two years entitled Aviation: Benefits Beyond Borders. The report sets out the ways in which aviation contributes to the economy, jobs and lives of millions of people around the world and how it is addressing its environmental impacts.
The most recent edition was published in December 2024. It explores the economic and social benefits of aviation: at a global level; for 14 major regions / groups; and at a national level in 85 countries. It uses the results of that assessment to build the most comprehensive global picture of air transport’s many benefits.