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This thesis seeks to examine the process of Europeanisation as it applies in the European airline industry, with specific reference to the national flag carriers of Greece and Cyprus. The overall aim is to examine whether Europeanisation has been the driving force behind a possible reform in the two flag carriers, Olympic Airways (OA) and Cyprus Airways (CY) respectively.

Civil aviation provides for large scale, rapid, safe and reliable transport over long distances. In the last half of the 20th century, the reliability of air transport has increased, safety has improved and costs have reduced: the volume of civil aviation has greatly increased and demand continues to rise. The social and economic benefits arising from aviation are substantial while its environmental costs are significant and increasing: with current technologies aviation is considered to be essentially unsustainable. Sustainable development as a concept, arose in the latter part of the 20th century. It may be regarded as a journey of changes through time, a journey navigating a wide range of changes in technology and behaviour thought to be needed to move towards a better level of sustainability. There is a need to apply the principles of sustainable development to the practice of the civil aviation industry. The research on which this thesis is based draws on sustainable development literature, general systems theory and quality principles to derive a holistic and systemic sustainable development model, and a methodology for deriving indicators of sustainable development. These are then applied to the civil aviation system, to select and construct indicators of sustainable development in civil aviation. The indicator selection process is participative, and seeks the views of stakeholders of UK civil aviation. Stakeholders are asked, via a Delphi study, to give their views on the meaning of sustainable aviation, and on the most important aspects of sustainable development in civil aviation. The research proposes a set of 29 indicators for sustainable development in civil aviation, including institutional and regulatory indicators. The research findings suggest that, amongst UK civil aviation stakeholders, there is some consensus on the important sustainability issues facing civil aviation, and on their choice of indicators. There is little understanding of the meaning of sustainable aviation, and disagreement on policies to adopt in favour of sustainable development in aviation. Amongst stakeholders from civil aviation organisations, there is strong opposition to regulatory or economic policies in favour of sustainable development. While the safety of civil aviation is institutionalised, there is evidence to suggest that opposition to other aspects of sustainable development is embedded in the regulatory and operational organisations of civil aviation in the UK.

The aim of this PhD research project was to critically examine the self-reported socially-responsible activities of European full-service and low-fares airlines. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept that has been described using many terms and with varying definitions. Broadly, it is the recognition that businesses should voluntarily mitigate and manage their externalities. CSR has been touted by businesses and governments alike as a preferred alternative to regulation. This research looked at the self-reported CSR approaches of the European airline sector, which has historically been heavily regulated and is currently facing increasing pressures regarding its impacts on CSR- and sustainability-related concerns. Low cost carriers have been under particular scrutiny for their impacts, and therefore, this research compared the CSR approaches of the two dominant airline business models in Europe: low cost and full service models. The sample consisted of 21 full service and 13 low cost carriers with headquarters in Europe. Mixed qualitative methods were applied to 566 secondary documents (websites, press releases, annual reports, and standalone CSR reports) and 15 elite interviews with airline managers. A range of established CSR indicators were assessed, including: definitions, reported practices, motivations and justifications for CSR activities, and CSR management and monitoring. Much of what the airlines reported as their CSR was at odds with academic and governmental definitions; as a whole, they placed considerable emphasis on environmental issues and adhering to regulations. This study also found that the CSR practices were closely correlated with business practices and key sector issues – an understanding of CSR that is most compatible with stakeholder theory-based conceptualisations. Business models on their own were found to be an overly-simplistic explanation for the wide variances of practice that were found in the sample. Instead, four ‘profiles of responsibility’ were identified, which better captured the differences in practices.