Due to the influence on the sectors and industries that have strong relationships with the air transportation industry, flight delays have a huge impact on China’s economy. In this study, the input–output method and the Ghosh model were used to analyze the indirect economic impacts of flight delays on China’s economy. We also constructed simultaneous demand-fare equations to estimate the direct output of the air industry as a result of flight delay control. The final results showed that the total indirect impact of flight delays on China was Ұ350.71 billion in 2013, stressing the importance of controlling flight delays. Since delay control not only provides direct benefits to passengers and carriers, but also indirectly contributes to regional economies, the efforts benefit the entire Chinese society. The great investment in flight delay governance should be shared among various producing sectors.

Green development has been of particular interest to a range of industries worldwide, one of which being the air transportation industry (ATI). The energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) projects of the ATI have a huge impact on the local economy. In this study, the input-output method was used to analyze the indirect economic impact of the implementation of the ECER projects of the ATI on the local economy of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. We examined the direct benefits, backward spread effects, forward spread effects, and consumption multiplier effects. The final results showed that the comprehensive economic income from 2011–2013 in the BTH region reached RMB 4.74 billion. The results revealed that the ECER projects commissioned by the ATI were worth investing from both the economic and social benefits perspectives. To increase the green development effects and promote the sustainable development of the ATI, the special funds provided by the Civil Aviation Administration of China should be invested intensively in basic green technology research and setting green regulating and governance rules.

Aircraft taxiing emissions are the main source of carbon dioxide and other pollutant gas emissions during airport ground operations. It is crucial to optimize aircraft taxiing from both spatial and temporal perspectives to improve airport operation efficiency and reduce aviation emissions. In this paper, a bilevel spatial and temporal optimization model of aircraft taxiing is constructed. The upper-level model optimizes the aircraft taxiing path, and the lower-level model optimizes the taxiing start time of the aircraft. By the iterative optimization of the upper- and lower-level interactions, the aviation fuel consumption, flight waiting time, and number of taxiing conflicts are reduced. To improve the calculation accuracy, the depth-first search algorithm is utilized to generate the set of available paths for aircraft during the model solution process, and a model solution method based on the genetic algorithm is constructed. Simulation experiments using Tianjin Binhai International Airport as the research object show that adopting the waiting taxiing strategy can effectively avoid taxiing conflicts and reduce aviation fuel consumption by 753.18 kg and 188.84 kg compared to the available path sets generated using Dijkstra’s algorithm and those created manually based on experience, respectively. Conversely, adopting an immediate taxi-out strategy caused 54 taxiing conflicts and increased aviation fuel consumption by 49.44 kg. These results can provide safe and environmentally friendly taxiing strategies for the sustainable development of the air transportation industry.

Developing production technology pathways of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) that align with China’s national conditions and aviation transportation needs is crucial for promoting the SAF industry and achieving China’s carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. This article first projects the future SAF demand in China for the coming decades. Using SAF demand data as an input, this article employs the TOPSIS analysis method to comprehensively evaluate the suitability of four SAF production technology pathways at different stages of development in China, which are Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA), Alcohol-to-Jet (AtJ), Natural Gas + Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis (G + FT), and Power-to-Liquid (PtL). The research results reveal the following trends: HEFA-based processes are the most suitable technology pathways for China in the near term; the G + FT route, based on energy crops, appears the most likely to support civil aviation needs in the medium to long term. In the long run, the PtL route holds significant potential, especially with the decreasing costs of green electricity, advancements in carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology, and improvements in SAF synthesis methods. In the final section of this article, we provide recommendations to drive the development of the SAF industry in China.

Because of its distinct function and geographic conditions, the impact of climate change on the operation, safety, and income of airports in coastal areas is becoming increasingly significant. The measurement of climate resilience can help identify priority needs and measures to adapt to climate change, which is a crucial step in developing an aviation adaptation plan. At present, the concept of climate resilience is relatively complex and lacks a clear uniformity of composition, which has made it challenging to effectively support the development of adaptation strategies. Based on the definition of climate resilience, our first step was to construct an evaluation system for coastal airports to visually represent the level of climate resilience. Next, in this study, we introduced a coupling coordination and obstacle degree model to analyze the coordinated development and key drivers of climate resilience, which could be used to develop a targeted improvement strategy based on the calculation results. In the future, additional measures can be combined from the natural environment, socioeconomics, governance capacity, and climate change risk to enhance the capacity development of the aviation industry to address climate change and foster the establishment of a sustainable development model between the industry and the environment.

The rapid expansion of civil aviation passenger transport in China has led to rising carbon emissions, posing a major challenge to the country’s R