The impact of air transport on economic, environmental and social development of cities and regions: a literature review and future research directions

Air transport plays a critical role in the movement of people and goods in modern society, and the socio-economically and environmentally sustainable development of cities and regions. There is a variety of mechanisms by which air transport affects urban development in direct, indirect, spillover and combined ways. The paper reviews the research undertaken over the last two decades relating to the direct, indirect, spillover and combined impacts of air transport on the three pillars of sustainable development namely, economic, environmental and social development of cities and regions, and on the factors that moderate these effects. We identified that the impacts of air transport on all three pillars, although examined in recent studies, are not balanced across the different effects of air transport, i.e. direct, indirect, spillover and combined effects. Key directions for further research are proposed.