Smart Technology and a Sustainable Aviation Industry

In 2010, the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) decided the global aviation industry needed to achieve carbon-neutral growth beginning in 2020. The Carbon Neutral Growth 2020 (CNG2020) initiative is an ambitious goal aimed at capping net emissions from aviation, regarded as one of the most challenging sectors to decarbonise. Furthermore, in an industry employing 88 million people (IATA, 2020, as cited in Khalifa et al., 2024), the impacts of the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic exposed global aviation’s precarious position amid transboundary mobility restrictions, supply chain and travel disruptions, and economic uncertainty.

As the number of passengers and flights has continued to grow since the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in substantial emissions within the transportation sector, the ongoing development and implementation of smart technologies for monitoring, efficiency, and communication systems, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT), have the potential to help the aviation industry meet environmental targets and enhance its sustainability, especially as climate change intensifies and challenges the resilience of infrastructure and aircraft.

This article discusses the implementation of smart technologies to create a greener aviation industry, transforming the procedures and operations of a sector that contributes approximately USD 4.1 trillion to the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (IATA, 2024, as cited in Dožić et al., 2026). 

A group of aviation professionals, Call Aviation to Action, have criticised their industry for “failing dramatically” to address its contribution to climate change (Carrington, 2025). Although aviation accounts for only 2.5% of the world’s carbon emissions (ICAO, 2019, as cited in Radulović, 2024; Ritchie, 2024), the industry, encompassing both flights and land use, is highly carbon-intensive. Yet, flights are used by only approximately 10% of the world’s population (Gössling & Humpe, 2020), underscoring the disparity between emissions and the number of people who benefit from flying.

Figure 1: The aviation industry has been criticised for “failing dramatically” to address its contribution to climate change (Slyronit, 2015).

Aviation and Smart Technology

Aviation has been identified as the most challenging sector to decarbonise, with the industry describing itself as “hard-to-decarbonize” (Bardon & Massol, 2025). Global aviation emissions are growing faster than those from road, rail, and shipping (Parhamfar, 2024; Wang et al., 2024), driven by rising demand for flights, freight, and tourism post-COVID-19 (IATA, 2022, as cited in Javanmard et al., 2024; İnan, 2025). In the EU, aviation is responsible for approximately 13.3% of total transport greenhouse gas emissions (European Commission, 2020), making it the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the sector after road transport. In addition to carbon dioxide, the largest component of aviation emissions (Gaillot et al., 2023), aircraft also release substances and gases that significantly harm the environment and affect the climate, including water vapour, soot, and nitrogen oxides (Cui et al., 2025). Without radical decarbonisation efforts by 2050, aviation could account for around a quarter of global emissions (Owen et al., 2010, as cited in Whitmarsh et al., 2020).

Since the mid 20th century, advancements in aircraft speed and technology have driven consistent expansion of commercial air travel, both in terms of passengers (Adler & Yazhemsky, 2018) and airline route networks (Swan, 2002). The aviation sector contributes 3.9% to global GDP (ATAG, 2024) and is projected to see flights more than double by the mid-century, reflecting rising demand in passenger traffic (ACI World, 2025). Given its substantial economic role, aviation is indispensable to the global economy and international travel (Perovic, 2013), raising important questions about the use of smart technology to increase the industry’s resilience to future disruptions, both on land and in the air, as climate change accelerates.

Smart technology is devices and systems, including cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT), that can operate in a network-connected, or smart, environment (Nguyen et al., 2024; Marengo, 2024; Choudhary et al., 2025). These advanced, smart systems enable decision-making “by the employment of cognitive systems” (Alsadi et al., 2025), allowing them to adapt and learn from real-time data, making them more autonomous and intelligent (Khadam et al., 2025). In aviation, the implementation of AI and IoT solutions has become a growing trend to improve the safety, efficiency, and overall effectiveness of air travel and infrastructure (Kabashkin & Perekrestov, 2024; Wild et al., 2025).

To improve environmental sustainability, safety, and the overall passenger experience, the aviation industry is increasingly adopting emerging smart technologies that drive autonomy, connectivity, and operational efficiency (Dias & Silva, 2024; Fondevila-Gascón et al., 2025). Key innovations and technologies, such as AI, the IoT (such as surveillance, sensors, and monitors), and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), are at the forefront of these efforts (Watson et al., 2024; Tafur et al., 2025), with digitalisation transforming aviation for a competitive and uncertain future (Heiets et al., 2022). Despite the potential of these advancements, the adoption of AI, for example, in the aviation industry remains in its early stages (Ivanov et al., 2021, as cited in Lopes et al., 2025). In fact, Jiang et al. (2023) have found that “the vast majority of regional airlines continue to rely on inefficient strategies and lack digital applications.” As global demand for flights rises due to tourism, trade, and business, the failure to restructure aviation’s unsustainable business model — driven by continuous growth (Gössling & Humpe, 2023) and the “exponential” increase in air travel (Maclaurin et al., 2025) — risks long-term damage to infrastructure and aircraft on land and in the air, respectively, due to the extremes of climate change (Voskaki et al., 2023; Chen et al., 2025).

Figure 2: To improve environmental sustainability, the aviation industry is increasingly adopting emerging smart technologies that drive autonomy, connectivity, and operational efficiency (Freepik, n.d.).

From airport infrastructure to flight operations, smart technology has the potential to transform every facet of aviation (Alketbi & Sipos, 2024; Li, 2025; Omido et al., 2025), an industry facing intense scrutiny in its pursuit of net-zero targets by 2050 (Kumar et al., 2025). The integration of multiple, cutting-edge technologies could address the environmental and sustainability concerns raised by international organisations such as the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which, in its Strategic Plan 2026–2050, prioritises technological innovation, operational improvements, and emissions-reduction strategies to support its long-term environmental goals for aviation (International Civil Aviation Organization, 2025). However, ICAO has been criticised for weakening its climate change efforts due to corporate influence from aviation industry representatives, as highlighted by the UK independent think tank InfluenceMap, which found: “The development of policies disproportionately reflecting industry interests, indicating a strong case of corporate ‘policy capture’” (InfluenceMap, 2025, p.3). This undue influence undermines the transparency of the aviation industry and its ability to be globally regulated through uniform safety standards.

Furthermore, analysis presented to ICAO at its 42nd Assembly in 2025 concluded that current aviation actions are “insufficient to align with the Paris Agreement” (ICSA, 2025) — namely, limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to cap it at 1.5°C (Delbecq et al., 2023). This has been attributed to corporate influence (InfluenceMap, 2025) and the lack of credible targets to reduce aviation emissions (Baledón & Kosoy, 2018). Its primary mitigation mechanism, the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), is designed to curb aviation’s impact on climate change by stabilising net emissions at 2020 levels through offsetting rather than direct emissions reductions (Scheelhaase & Maertens, 2020). However, despite being the first global scheme adopted in 2016 for an entire sector (Wozny et al., 2022), it will only become mandatory after 2027 (Wang, 2024); voluntary participation has been in place since 2021 (Almena et al., 2024). In addition to its lack of global enforcement, CORSIA has faced severe criticism for its limited scope, as it applies only to international flights and excludes domestic aviation (Raihan, 2025). By relying on offsets rather than direct aviation emission reductions, scheme members are susceptible to weak regulatory oversight and limited accountability, since “member states are currently not required to publish the final offsetting requirements of their airline operators” (Yehia, 2024).

Aviation Growth in China

As demand for flights and air freight is projected to rise throughout this century, smart technology could usher in a new era of greener aviation by enhancing the efficiency, connectivity, and management of both infrastructure and aircraft (Rubio-Andrada et al., 2023; Xue et al., 2025). The development of smart aviation, summarised by Bao et al. (2024) as “the profound integration of emerging technologies with traditional civil aviation practices”, evolves well-established aviation practices rather than replacing them entirely. In China, for example, which has the world’s fastest-growing passenger air market (CAAC, 2021, as cited in Hou et al., 2025), the integration of smart aviation technologies has become a major strategic initiative for the country’s aviation industry and stakeholders (Gao & He, 2025), aimed at modernising and transforming its steadily expanding network of airports. The rollout of smart aviation technologies across China has been accelerating to create more efficient and convenient air travel. Accounting for roughly 14% of global aviation-related emissions (Wang et al., 2023), China’s aviation industry, second only to the United States (Cliff et al., 2011), has made achieving carbon neutrality — peaking emissions before 2030 (Chen et al., 2023) and implementing sustainability initiatives such as SAF (Wang et al., 2024a) — critical to supporting the global aviation industry’s net-zero goals by 2050.

China has also taken steps to improve airspace management by utilising low-altitude airspace to reduce emissions and promote a more sustainable environment. This approach aims to address future environmental, logistical, and social challenges as the economy continues to expand, having historically relied on heavily polluting industrial and manufacturing activities geared toward export. The accelerating development of a government-supported national Low-Altitude Economy (LEA) (Huang et al., 2024), an interconnected transportation network which encompasses a range of economic and civilian activities conducted below 1,000 meters (Jin, 2025), involves the use of unmanned technology such as eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft in China’s burgeoning urban areas (Xiaohan & Wenqiu, 2025; Xu et al., 2025). By 2050, according to the United Nations (2014), 80% of China’s population is projected to be urbanised. However, Wang et al. (2025) note the difficulty of these systems to “provide sustainable services in high-density airspace and resource-constrained areas”.

Figure 3: A delivery drone flying over skyscrapers - such drones have been employed as a part of China’s low-altitude economy (HadasBandel, 2017).

Smart Technology and Environmental Protection

Across the aviation industry, smart technologies are increasingly being developed and implemented to reduce environmental impacts, including those linked to air quality and climate‑related extreme events, to which aviation emissions contribute (Rupcic et al., 2023; Holmes et al., 2025; Wandelt et al., 2025). The integration of AI and IoT into this vast network enables real-time monitoring of performance, communications, and potential conflicts (Kabashkin & Shoshin, 2024; Wild et al., 2025). This is creating smart airports through connected technologies and innovations, transforming the overall airport experience, including the customer journey (Bao et al., 2024), as well as improving aircraft maintenance, fuel efficiency, and logistics (Baláž et al., 2023). The collection of big data by smart technology is helping analyse and address aviation’s multifaceted challenges, transforming how airports and aircraft operate and potentially improving sustainability through system optimisation and simplifying travel and freight operations (Chung et al., 2020; Chen et al., 2024). 

The introduction of SAF, a renewable alternative to fossil jet fuels, is also helping to minimise aviation’s environmental impact by potentially reducing carbon emissions by up to 80% (Abrantes et al., 2021, as cited in Magalhães et al., 2026). SAF is produced from several renewable sources, such as used cooking oil and industrial waste (Klimczyk et al., 2025), which can capture carbon emissions during their growth. As a result, the carbon released during combustion is considered part of a closed carbon cycle, “wherein the carbon dioxide emitted during fuel combustion is demonstrably sequestered from the atmosphere during its synthesis” (Uddin & Wang, 2025). Consequently, SAF has been identified as the most viable near-term alternative to conventional fossil-derived aviation fuel (Ismail et al., 2025), with Bardon and Massol (2025) projecting that SAF could account for between 35% and 71% of aviation decarbonisation.

Smart technology is transforming aviation by turning airports into data-driven smart airports, aiming to enhance the efficiency of passenger services and support more sustainable and efficient terminal operations (Serrano & Kazda, 2020; Gürsel et al., 2022; Thums et al., 2023). In addition, airports are increasingly being evaluated using climate resilience frameworks designed to enhance their ability to withstand future weather extremes projected to intensify due to climate change (Poo et al., 2021), while data-driven energy management and automation systems help mitigate the environmental impact of airport operations (Parhamfar, 2024). Advanced smart technologies introduced in airport buildings include biometrics (facial recognition and fingerprinting), IoT (for managing congestion and measuring efficiency), and AI (airport simulation software for modelling and analysing operations), enabling more efficient services by optimising resource allocation (Negri et al., 2019; Rubio‑Andrada et al., 2023; Li, 2025).

While aviation’s long-term sustainability raises environmental concerns, the development and expansion of smart technologies can both drive industry innovation and intensify existing global ecological and societal challenges. Digitalisation is expected to bring significant innovation to the aviation industry (Gürsel et al., 2022) and, as Karafakıoğlu (2025) notes, “accelerate the sustainability transformation” by enabling smarter operations through technologies such as cloud, AI, and the IoT. In addition, these technologies can optimise aviation’s operational IT systems, making them more interoperable, cost-effective, and seamless. However, the widespread adoption of smart technologies in sectors and industries (the Fourth Industrial Revolution) may also generate negative socioeconomic impacts, including high implementation and deployment costs, associated operational risks, data privacy and cybersecurity concerns, and potential job losses or skills depreciation due to automation of services (Filippi et al., 2023; Fuchs et al., 2025). In addition, the growing global demand for smart technologies – from homes to cities – raises environmental concerns, including depletion of raw materials and rare earth minerals, increased energy consumption in both production and usage, and electronic waste (e-waste) management (Fawole et al., 2023; Goel et al., 2024), all of which can indirectly contribute to climate change.

Figure 4: Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is helping to minimise aviation’s environmental impact by potentially reducing carbon emissions by up to 80% (Curimedia, 2011).

SAF’s contribution to aviation’s environmental impact remains debated, as high production costs and limited feedstock scalability currently restrict its wider deployment (Pukazhselvan et al., 2026). Its limited availability in Europe is highlighted by EASA (2022), as cited in Aksoy et al. (2025), with supply remaining very low, constituting less than 0.05% of the EU’s total aviation fuel usage. Furthermore, SAF feedstock use is limited by CORSIA sustainability criteria, which not all its feedstocks and production pathways meet (He et al., 2025). While SAF can reduce some emissions, nitrogen oxides (NO₂) from aircraft operations remain a major contributor to air quality and human health impacts, even when SAF blends are used (Arter et al., 2022).

Conclusion

The aviation industry is undergoing significant, even revolutionary, changes in climate impact, operational efficiency, and customer experience through the implementation of smart technologies. As the industry recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, these technological and fuel-efficiency advancements are becoming essential for its long-term sustainability and operational performance. Yet the emergence of “smart” aviation and airports also creates new challenges for data protection and the environment. Automation, while boosting safety and operational efficiency, is also reshaping aviation employment opportunities as both a mechanism of role replacement and job transformation. Rising costs and the lack of international standardisation continue to hamper the funding and development of smart aviation systems, even as a connected, harmonised framework could significantly improve efficiency and interoperability across national systems.

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