This thesis is an examination of the failure of the European Community and subsequently of the European Union to develop a full common air-transport policy. The main issues on which the present study focuses are the reciprocal influences, interactions and confrontations of national and EC air-transport policy interests. It is demonstrated that they obstructed the process of the air-transport market liberalization and inhibited the development of an integrated EC air-transport policy. The years covered by the doctorate are 1987 to 1993. The thesis explains how the interests of member-states and major corporations in a period of major structural adjustment blocked the creation of a common air-transport policy; instead EC institutions were subordinated to the powerful national air-transport interests of the member-states and of their champion carriers. The thesis is based on an extensive examination of primary sources and interview materials. This not only comprises new empirical information about the specific characteristics and nature of EC air-transport politics and policy, but also takes into account the broader politico-economic characteristics of the member-states air-transport policies and systems.

Sustainability of the aviation industry, as any other industry, depends on the elasticity of demand for the product and profitability through minimising operating costs and hence assessing and understanding the interdependency and effects of environmentally optimised solutions and emission mitigation policies, is paramount. The contribution to knowledge, from this research, is the development and application of assessment methodologies to better understand the effects that future potential environmental taxation may have on the adaptation of optimised “greener” operations and novel technologies. These studies are undertaken using a Techno-economic Environmental Risk Assessment approach (TERA). The first methodology introduced to assess optimised operation methods (based on operating cost analysis), demonstrated that carbon taxation has limited effect if applied in isolation. Increasing it to extreme levels, apart from resulting in an increase in operational costs and raising governmental revenues, may not necessarily result in influencing an airline operator’s operational strategy to move to greener solutions. Instead, an application of a taxation level, commensurate to global standards, coupled with an improved air traffic management system, would allow aircraft to fly closer to their design efficiency and hence aid in reducing the environmental impact. The second methodology introduced (based on an operating and investment cost analysis) allows the assessment of the economic viability of a new technology in comparison to a conventional technology, when considered in terms of relative increase in acquisition price and maintenance costs, for various emission taxation and fuel price scenarios. A study undertaken as a ‘proof of concept’, comparing a Counter Rotating Open Rotor (CROR) aircraft with a conventional aircraft, indicates that at a current fuel price and no carbon taxation, despite being demonstrated as a highly fuel efficient technology, a relative increase in acquisition price and maintenance costs in comparison to the conventional aircraft, could render the CROR technology, economically unviable. The work further demonstrates that for the CROR technology to be economically beneficial, a simultaneous introduction of emission taxes may be required. The study shows that in order to achieve lower environmental impact, the implementation of taxation with the introduction of greener technologies will evidently increase the cost of civil aviation operation. This research subsequently identifies the following questions, more of a ‘political and socio-economic nature’, to consider as part of further work.  If taxes above the global industry standards are introduced for the aviation industry, and they are higher in comparison to those applied on some other carbon intensive sectors, will it raise questions on equity of treatment?  If taxation is introduced, airline operators and the ticket price paying passengers being amongst the key stakeholders in the aviation industry, will such high pricing as demonstrated be practical for long term sustenance?  Will policies be driven by the fact that they will be aimed as a trade-off between achieving global sustenance of the industry and achieving environmental gain?  Will high taxation as demonstrated, have global acceptance or will it have to be compromised, based on the growth potential or GDP of a country/region?

This thesis examines the political economy of the air cargo industry in the Philippines and Taiwan in the 1990s. The air cargo industry is an important facilitator of economic globalization and now transports 34% of world merchandise trade by value. The Philippines and Taiwan were selected because of their central location in East Asia, a region highly dependent on air cargo-facilitated trade. The growing economic role of air cargo service clashes with the propensity of national governments to protect domestic air cargo interests from air cargo transnational corporations (TNCs). The primary question addressed in this research is to determine what factors influenced air cargo policy decisions by the Philippines and Taiwan during the 1990 - 1999 timeframe. A levels-of-analysis empirical approach is utilized that includes causal factors emanating from domestic and international sources, including interests, institutions, and ideas. The potential contribution of crises to policy outcomes is also considered. The themes that emerge from this research are the interplay between interests and domestic political institutions on policy outcomes; the role of TNCs as political actors; the influence of state-state bargaining on commercial policy outcomes; and the constraints imposed by international institutions on national decision-makers. The empirical argument presented is that economic globalization and the rise of TNCs are challenging the ability of national governments to pursue independent commercial policies for some, but not all, air cargo issue-areas. It is also argued that the structure of domestic political institutions plays an important role in policy outcomes by attenuating the influence of air cargo interests.

This thesis investigates the production of airport space, and it puts a particular emphasis on its temporal, spatial and embodied characteristics. The first chapter is concerned with the work of architects and their production of representations of airport space. Building on in-depth interviews with architects, the chapter considers their use of drawings and computer models as well as their thinking about the sites where airports are located. The second chapter investigates the work of operational readiness experts, who design and test the spatial practices of the operations of new airport buildings. Making use of interviews with two operational readiness experts and my observations during terminal trials, the chapter is concerned with t he design of the trial process as well as the creation of individual trials. I investigate the scripting of volunteers to get at the understanding of the passenger as a user of airport space. The third chapter discusses the labour of cleaners and baggage handlers in maintaining airport space and enabling passengers’ movement. I interviewed union representatives, a ground handling expert and a health and safety expert to provide multiple perspectives on workers’ labour, as well as the physical consequences of their work. The fourth chapter is concerned with the impact of aircraft noise on neighbourhoods close to, and increasingly also at a distance from, airports. Building on interviews with activists and representatives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, I investigate how aircraft noise is measured and represented and how its geographies are perceived, navigated, and protested by inhabitants. Throughout, the thesis aims to create an understanding of the relations between the spatial and temporal characteristics of airport space, and their impacts on the multiple subjects of airport space.

Because of the complex nature of the air transportation industry with continuous changes in the environment, the past records of air traffic forecasters, either using trend extrapolation or causal models or even more sophisticated methods have not produced accurate results. In recent years, the trend has been to develop air travel demand forecasts based on econometric equations, which specify a relationship between passenger traffic and a number of traditional key economic variables. However these forecasts do not take into account air traffic downturns or strong increases. Periods of economic or political uncertainty are associated with consumer confidence volatility, suggesting that swings in confidence could influence air travel demand. The failure of forecasters to predict the repeated peaks and troughs since 2001 has renewed interest in supplementing econometric forecasts with qualitative indicators such as consumer confidence indices. These variables are available for some countries and the aim of this research is to find whether forecasts based on these indices are more accurate in predicting short-term traffic up and downs. Through the analysis of three case studies, this thesis examines how the introduction of a confidence index in the air travel demand model, including only macroeconomic variables, could have some ability to improve the forecast accuracy of the model. For each case study, the demand for the market has been divided according to the existing supply side segments, namely legacy carriers, low cost carriers and non-scheduled airlines. The results show that this confidence index has some ability to improve the forecast accuracy of both, the global top-down and the bottom-up models built for some supply side segments, notably the legacy ones during periods of uncertainty such as 1991, 2001, 2008 and 2009. The results are also suggesting that the forecasting power of this index is increasing when applied to more mature markets such as the demand linked to the US legacy carriers or to the European charter airlines.This study is appraising the performance of consumer confidence indexes by examining their impact on different air travel demand forecasts.

Low cost carriers have changed the competitive dynamics of the short-haul market forever. They have revolutionised the way of doing business in aviation by adopting a fresh approach on both strategic and operational issues. Simplicity has become their universal principle over network airlines and subsequently they have achieved substantial cost advantages which are passed onto the consumer as lower fares. Network airlines have found it difficult to reshape their structural barriers and have been slow to incorporate the components that low cost carriers deemed very significant in impacting their operating margins. However, a restructuring of their internal weaknesses should spur initiatives to design long-term strategies to address those shortcomings. Network airlines rely on producing value-adding and consumerdriven product differentiation beyond the basics of the low cost carrier product. To further differentiate themselves network airlines need to focus on: customer satisfaction; develop long term mutually beneficial relationships with both passengers and corporations; collaborate with a wide range of bipartisan partners; retain differentiated flight products that add value; and to incorporate strategies that other network carriers deemed paradigmatic. Network carriers should resist reducing costs associated with value-added services and need to become innovative in generating alternative revenue streams.

The problem identified in this research is the lack of understanding and knowledge ofthe factors that produce a propensity towards e-CRM as a predictor of continued customer use. To this end this study investigated the factors contributing to attitude towards the use of e-CRM of that would positively influence customers of Afriqiyah Airways (AAW), contributing to customer retention. The research developed a modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) incorporating these factors. The general TAM model proposes that external variables influence perception of ease of use and perception of usefulness of a technology, with perception as a predictor for the adoption of that technology. In our proposed model, the external variables consisted of Trust, Pre-Sales Services, and After-Sales Services, which influenced the variable Perception (borrowed from TAM) that combined perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness ofthe e-CRM system. The research collected data using a survey questionnaire disseminated to 306 customers of Afriqiyah Airways (AAW) in the United Kingdom. Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analysis established the validity of the survey questionnaire. The partial least squares method was employed to analyse the Customer Retention Modified TAM Model used in the study, while simple and multiple regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses of the study concerning the relationships among the variables. The findings of this study, however, demonstrate that Trust plays a direct and significant role on Attitude toward using e-CRM that is not mediated by Perception, although it accounted for less variance in Attitude than it did for Perception. These results imply that Trust may be one of the most important external variables for developing a propensity towards e-CRM among customers, which suggests that Afriqiyah Airways (AAW) and other similar airlines should ensure that elements oftheir e-CRM system contribute to customers' subjective evaluation of trustworthiness of the system. Moreover, the findings also demonstrate that the customer's experience with Pre-Sales Services and After-Sales Services can have an effect on Attitude, which suggests that firms should ensure their customer care systems meet the expectations ofusers of the online system. The findings also have implications for Afriqiyah and other similar firms by indicating that both sale stages can play an important role in the customer's perceptions of an e-CRM system. Hence; when considered together, the finding that Trust, Pre-Sales Services and After-Sales Services each make an important contribution to variance in Perception implies that these external variables antecedent to Perception are necessary for customers to develop a propensity towards e-CRM. In conclusion, the finding that the Customer Retention Modified TAM Model accounts for approximately more than half of the variance in Attitude and that there are rich interrelationships with each other suggests that the four variables of Trust, Pre-Sales Services and After-Sales Services are important predictive factors for explaining the variance in Attitude. This suggests that firms seeking to improve attitudes towards e-CRM should focus on these four constructs to ensure that the elements of the e-CRM system meet with customer expectations. Hence, the final finding of the study is the determination that a positive attitude toward e-CRM use is a necessary prerequisite for customer retention.

This research has focused on the service failure and recovery of the Airline industry and the impact that has on customer satisfaction along with the task to identify optimal recovery strategies. It has identified 22 Failure types that occurred during service failure and has expanded the understanding of the impact that several factors such as Severity of Failure, Failure type, Emotion and Justice have on Post Failure Satisfaction (PFS), on Satisfaction with Recovery (SWR), on Post Recovery Satisfaction (PRS) and Loyalty through the use of a suggested model (conceptual framework). More specific it has found that the factors of Severity of Failure (exclusively for the airline industry) and Failure type have a negative effect on Post Failure Satisfaction (PFS), on Satisfaction with Recovery (SWR), on Post Recovery Satisfaction (PRS) and Loyalty. In addition, the factor of Emotion did not have a significant effect on Post Recovery Satisfaction (PRS) and Loyalty while the factor of Justice has. It has also identified some recovery strategies that work more effectively after the occurrence of service failure. More particularly the strategies of providing (on behalf of the airline company) : (1) Opportunity to voice my view/feelings, (2) Correction of the problem, (3) Staff empowered to solve the problem, (4) Apology for the service failure), (5) Follow-Up in writing from airline manager, (6) Facilitation for making complain process easier, (7) Appropriate place to explain/handle the complaint, (8) Understanding staff and some others to a smaller extent, work more effectively with regards to the recovery process for the customer. The research had a quantitative approach and was carried out with multivariate statistics (IBM’s SPSS software package) such as Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and (OLS) Regression analysis. It suggested a model (conceptual framework) where several factors were tested with the above-mentioned statistics. Further this research has also revealed some service quality models for the airline industry (both industry specific and non) that work better and more specific suggested the use of the Hierarchical model along with industry-based models. In addition, the usage of the SERVPEX and SERVPERF models cannot be totally rejected as there are arguments from both sides. Overall this research has contributed to theory by demonstrating through a conceptual framework what general impact exist in the whole service failure and recovery process with regards to the factors of Severity of Failure, Failure type, Emotion and Justice. The findings provide a significant contribution to the literature.

Aeronautical critical decision making (ACDM) can be the main factor determining whether an incident turns into an accident. With hindsight it is easy to establish where poor decisions were made. In order to gain a better understanding of ACDM it is necessary to investigate local rationality: to establish why the actions and assessments undertaken by an operator made sense to them at the time. The Perceptual Cycle Model (PCM) was used as the theoretical framework to investigate ACDM. The PCM describes the reciprocal, cyclical, relationship that exists between an operator and their work environment; depicting the interaction between internally held mental schemata and externally available environmental information as equal contributors to decisions and actions. It is argued that the acknowledgement of this interaction sets the PCM apart from other models of decision making. A literature review established that the PCM is a suitable framework to model ACDM. Two case studies, one an accident analysis and one a critical incident interview, demonstrated that the PCM was sensitive in establishing that the interaction of both schemata and world information influenced decision making processes. Subsequent research developed the PCM as an explanatory framework in three key ways. First, the construct validity of the model was explored. A counter-cycle (not depicted in the original model) was found and this was attributed to automatic, skill-based, behaviour characteristic of experts. Second, the PCM was extended by the development of a bespoke taxonomy to provide a more detailed description of ACDM. This demonstrated the importance of different PCM concepts in different phases of critical decision making. This work also led to the development of an interview schedule to elicit perceptual cycle data. Third, the PCM was applied to the study of teams. This novel application of the model demonstrated how teams function in a distributed perceptual cycle, whereby the actions of one team member become world information for the other. The overall findings are discussed in light of their potential theoretical, methodological and practical applications.

Given our increasing reliance on air travel to function in all aspects of society, it seems imperative to expand our knowledge of airspace and the social relations that air travel enhances and makes possible. My thesis offers a critical analysis of the technical safety systems that support air travel. It finds fissures in the rationality that underlines our belief in the safety and sustainability of air travel and leaves open the question of whether our confidence in this system can be sustained only by the claim that it is inherently rational. According to anthropologists Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star, one of the defining characteristics of technological systems that achieve the cultural status of ‘infrastructure’, is that they ‘become visible upon breakdown’. (Bowker and Star 2000, 335) Two real world events - a commercial airliner’s (Air New Zealand 901) collision with an Antarctic volcano, killing 257 people in 1979 and the closure of European airspace due to the presence of volcanic ash (eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland in 2010) expose the fragility of the infrastructural systems supporting air travel. As conditions of exceptionality, these events pose a challenge to aspects of our spatial imaginary, allowing us to understand the contradictory interdependence of trust and risk. Working across media, using video, sound, object making and print, my practice is concerned with the ‘breaking down’ of space. My work reflects my increasing interest in the precariousness of empirically grounded monolithic systems that aspire towards comprehensive totality and stability through their own set of formal logics and structural parameters.