Airlines and Corporate Responsibility: Issues and Challenges

This chapter gives an explication of the way in which the airline industry performs and reports on Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (CSR). The connected case study (see Chap. 11) uses Air France-KLM as example. It becomes clear that airlines’ attitudes towards CSR depend on their geographic location, business model, and business performance. Their reporting on CSR is generally of lower quality and mainly relates to environmental issues, while social and ethical issues are apparently either considered of lesser importance or are more difficult to operationalise. Concerning the environmental impact, for example, it appears that airlines with a green public image tend to score low on a climate change index. This finding evokes concern that airlines might use CSR reporting mainly for PR purposes. This chapter includes a section on ethical reflection on CSR in the airline industry and concludes that a more fundamental approach to the issue of unsustainable growth of aviation, restricted volume growth, needs active and robust government guidance and cooperation with the airline industry.