Pricing aircraft emissions at Lyon-Satolas airport

The cost of air pollution from aviation at Lyon-Satolas airport for 1987, 1990, 1994, and 2015 is estimated by linking environmental assessment techniques that yield an emissions inventory for aircraft operations with economic cost evaluations of air pollution from ground based sources in Lyon (e.g. road transport, industry, and agriculture). To highlight both the uncertainty that exists regarding the economic assessment of damages from air pollution's effects and the variation in ‘willingness to pay’ for environmentally sustainable transportation, estimates are expressed as a range covering four possible scenarios. These scenarios differ along two parameters: rural vs urban impact of pollution and minimal vs potential preferences for environmental protection in a particular jurisdiction. Such an approach produces a range of estimates that could be applied to virtually any airport, thus allowing public officials not only in Lyon, but also elsewhere, to factor the approximation of environmental costs that they judge to be most appropriate into airport planning and aviation policy development.