Airline Sustainability and Performance in a Liberalised Environment

Air Service liberalisation is known to be associated with traffic stimulation, improved market access and route development, business innovation, social benefits, technological achievements, regulatory progress, and economic growth. Sustainable development for key stakeholders is important to limit protectionist trends, strengthen global connectivity, improve performance and maximise benefits for passengers. Studies on the overall performance of the airline industry for the past forty years suggests there are limitations in profitability records despite the added value the industry brings to consumers, the wider economy and governments. The aim of this paper is to investigate gaps on existing approaches to airline sustainability and use the results for further research in order to develop a link between sustainability, liberalisation and airline performance. A study of the available literature review on the effects of liberalisation situates the research focus for this paper within the context of sustainability of Air Carriers in a liberalised environment.