Aircraft Emissions and Air Quality Impact Assessment

Aircraft emissions comprise a complex mixture of gaseous pollutants and particulate matter released during ground operations, take-off and cruise. Key constituents include nitrogen oxides, ultrafine particles and black carbon, each of which can influence local air quality and human health as well as regional atmospheric chemistry and global climate. Emissions of ultrafine particles in particular are associated with elevated particle number concentrations in the vicinity of airports, where dispersion is governed by meteorology and surface roughness. At larger scales, cruise emissions contribute to ozone formation and long-range transport of aerosols, affecting downwind populations. Assessment approaches combine field measurements, emission inventories and dispersion modelling with toxicological and epidemiological studies. Health impact assessments draw on concentration–response relationships to estimate respiratory and cardiovascular endpoints, while inventory-based models quantify spatially resolved emissions indices and global forcing metrics. Mitigation strategies span alternative fuels with lower aromatic and sulphur content, engine operational adjustments such as reduced-thrust take-offs, and technological improvements in combustor design. Together, these tools inform policy decisions aimed at reducing adverse outcomes around airports and across flight corridors, underlining the global significance of aviation-driven air quality challenges.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Size-resolved inventories of black carbon from civil aviation have recently provided the first global particle number emission database, revealing geometric mean diameters of around 32 nm and highlighting that aviation contributes several per cent of total anthropogenic black carbon emissions. This work underpins toxicological and climate assessments by offering a detailed baseline of particle number and size distributions across flight phases. In parallel, controlled in vitro exposures of human bronchial epithelial cells to non-volatile particulate matter from modern turbofan engines have demonstrated that short-term inhalation of ground-idle exhaust can impair airway cells at low mass concentrations. These findings point to the need for additional metrics beyond mass to evaluate health risks and inform engine certification and air-quality management near runways.

Aircraft Emissions and Air Quality Impact Assessment publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in aircraft emissions and air quality impact assessment across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Ultrafine particles (UFP): Aerosol particles with diameters less than 100 nm, capable of deep lung penetration and systemic distribution.

Black carbon (BC): Light-absorbing carbonaceous particulate matter formed by incomplete combustion, affecting radiative balance and health.

Emission index: Quantity of pollutant emitted per unit of fuel burned, often expressed as mass or number per kilogram of fuel.

Dispersion modelling: Computational technique to predict the transport and dilution of pollutants in the atmosphere.

Particle number concentration (PNC): The count of particles per unit volume of air, a metric sensitive to ultrafine aerosol emissions.

References

1. Global, regional and local health impacts of civil aviation emissions. Environmental Research Letters (2015).
2. Reductions in aircraft particulate emissions due to the use of Fischer–Tropsch fuels. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2014).
3. Airport emissions reductions from reduced thrust takeoff operations. Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment (2017).
4. A number-based inventory of size-resolved black carbon particle emissions by global civil aviation. Nature Communications (2019).
5. Non-volatile particle emissions from aircraft turbine engines at ground-idle induce oxidative stress in bronchial cells. Communications Biology (2019).
6. Emissions of ultrafine particles from civil aircraft: dependence upon aircraft type and passenger load. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science (2023).
7. Beyond the Runway: Respiratory health effects of ultrafine particles from aviation in children. Environment International (2024).
8. Birth Outcomes among Infants Born between 2006 and 2018 after Maternal Exposure during Pregnancy to Ultrafine Particles from Aviation around a Large International Airport in the Netherlands. Environmental Health Perspectives (2025).