‘What if…?’ A manifesto for the green transformation of aviation

This chapter advocates a manifesto for the green transformation of aviation. It identifies and evaluates the discourses of ‘business as usual’ and ‘demand management’, which frame public policy dialogue around aviation in the post-pandemic world, concluding that the expansionist logic of ‘business as usual’, which relies on the myth of technological fixes, efficiencies and offsetting, no longer provides the effective tools or policies to tackle the environmental injustices of aviation, if it ever did. Equally, the chapter argues that ‘demand management’ also conforms to a logic of attenuation, supporting the politics of reform rather than transition and transformation. The chapter sketches out an emergent path leading to the green restructuring of aviation, which involves a radical divestment from aviation, while providing support for green jobs, social infrastructure and the foundational economy. The chapter also promotes the idea of alternative hedonism, while demanding new forms of political leadership and progressive alliances at the heart of a green state. The chapter contends that it is only this hegemonic strategy of transformation that connects aviation to broader visions of post-growth societies, which will enable us to break our addiction to flying and dependency on unsustainable and exclusionary forms of infrastructure.