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Effects of COVID-19-related air traffic restrictions on local air quality at Zurich airport
Journal of Airport Management,
15
(1),
59-70
(2020)
Abstract
This paper discusses how the efforts of authorities to limit the spread of COVID-19 have led to restrictions in people’s mobility with significant impacts on air traffic operations worldwide. Zurich airport has experienced a drop of 91 per cent in aircraft movements from February to April 2020. The decrease in activity has led to a decrease in local emissions of 83 per cent for NOx, while NO2 concentrations at and around the airport decreased by only 50 per cent. Ultrafine particle numbers show similar values. The analysis further took into account the change in regional road traffic and the meteorology for comparable periods in 2019 and 2020, before and during the crisis.
Keywords: air traffic; airport; local air quality; emissions; impacts; COVID-19
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Emanuel Fleuti has been working with Zurich Airport since 1990, heading the Environmental Department. He is responsible for all environmental topics excluding aircraft noise, but is specialised particularly in environmental management, airport air quality and climate change. Zurich airport has held an ISO 14000 certificate for its Environmental Management System since 2001, the Airport Carbon Accreditation Level 3 since 2010 and the Environmental Department also holds an ISO 9001 certificate for Quality Management. Emanuel has participated in numerous international programmes like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Aviation and Global Atmosphere (1999), European Research Programmes (Forum-AE, AVIATOR) and The International Civil Aviation Organization‘s The Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection process (since 1995). He also represents the airport in the ADV (German Airports Association), and has chaired the environmental committees of Airports Council International (ACI) EUROPE and ACI World while still being an active member. He currently chairs the ACI EUROPE Airport Carbon Accreditation Task Force. Emanuel holds an master of sciences’ degree from the University of Berne in physical geography.
