986076 - A Sustainable and Resilient Recovery for Aviation

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

9:00am – 10:40am US EDT

Panel Chair(s)

Katherine Preston, MS, Environmental Science and Policy, ENV SP

Director, Aviation Environmental Services
HMMH
Burlington, MA

Panel Co-Chair(s)

Robert C. Mentzer, Jr.

Principal Consultant
HMMH
Burlington, MA

Panelist(s)

Veronica Bradley, JD

Director, Environmental Affairs
Airlines for America
Dan Williams

Senior International Advisor, Office of Environment and Energy
Federal Aviation Administration
Brendan Reed, MS, CM, LEED-AP

Director of Airport Planning & Environmental Affairs
San Diego County Regional Airport Authority
San Diego, CA

The COVID pandemic has affected all segments of our economy, but perhaps none as severely as aviation. With passenger traffic numbers down more than 90 percent at the beginning of last year, airports and airlines have collectively lost billions of dollars in revenue. Although traffic is rebounding with vaccine distribution improving, the long-term effects of COVID on the sector's recovery are unknown. In addition to recovering from COVID, airports and airlines are also facing the more serious threat of climate change. Physical climate risks (such as increased frequency and severity of extreme weather, sea level rise, extreme heat and drought), as well as regulatory and economic risks (carbon regulation, taxes, changing travel patterns, population displacement, etc), must be addressed. The industry is facing these challenges and planning for the future by setting aggressive sustainability and climate goals, including significant carbon emissions reductions and a rapid scale-up of sustainable aviation fuel use. In this session, panelists will explore the outlook for aviation in a post-COVID environment and how airports, airlines and the FAA plan to address the larger climate challenges ahead.