Aviation Systems - Management of the Aviation Value Chain

Globalisation has led to a strongly growing demand in international air transport. This growth was fuelled by deregulation of the airline sector. The industry was challenged by downturns every decade and at the time of finalising this book, by COVID-19, the biggest global aviation downturn in history. The aviation industry is facing huge challenges especially with respect to its impact on the environment and new technologies to solve those challenges. More than ever, policy makers, business leaders, but also the whole society need a deeper understanding of the aviation sector and the connections between its benefits and costs.

This book targets industry managers as well as policy makers, institutional customers of the sector, and in particular students in the field of transport and tourism. It provides an overview on the aviation sector with a special focus on value creation and strategies based on industrial economics. The consequent application of a system view makes the book unique in its field. The book draws on the rich tradition of integrated management approaches and the use of system models in management research and teaching in management at the University of St. Gallen. The system view and the use of system models help to understand interrelated and interdependent developments, like the consequences of technical progress on regulation, supply and demand.

The authors were fortunate enough to be able to draw on research results of many years at the Center of Aviation Competence at the University of St. Gallen. Therefore, the editors thank all colleagues who contributed to this book by discussions, research contributions, and administrative support, and especially the co-authors René Puls, Adrian Müller, Erik Linden, Jan-Christian Schraven, Mark Roth and Philipp Boksberger. Special thanks go to our assistant Christopher Siegrist who did the language editing and supported with different works along the development of the book.