EASA publishes study assessing environmental sustainability of the End-of-Life stage of an aircraft

The report ‘Assessment of the environmental sustainability status in the Aviation Maintenance and Production Organisation (M&P) Domain’ presents the outcome of the research study commissioned by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, in a field which has not yet been studied in depth — the End-of-Life (EoL) phase of an aircraft.

While emissions generated by fuel burn cause by far the largest impact to environmental sustainability during an aircraft’s life, its design, maintenance, production and End-of-Life (EoL) also have an important role to play in the sustainability. The study focusses on those lifecycle phases that fall under EoL: Decommissioning, Disassembly, Dismantling, Recycling, Landfill.

The study is divided in 3 parts: 

• Part 1 provides an overview of the global and EU-specific, as well as aviation-specific and non-aviation specific sustainability standards and regulations. It highlights some best practices, studies and other initiatives piloted by industry.
• Part 2 describes the role sustainability considerations play or could play within the different areas, units, and processes of the aircraft lifecycle. This covers general considerations (e.g. in organisational management, planning/reporting, cooperation amongst organisations and legal aspects), as well as elements within the aerospace industry (maintenance, production, decommissioning/disassembling) and within the waste business (dismantling, energy recovery and landfill activities).
• Finally, part 3 lists and weights several recommendations affecting a wide range of stakeholders and phases within the aircraft lifecycle.