In recent years, the prediction of the potential effects of environmental degradation by activities of various sectors including aviation has led to stakeholders calling for a change coupled with the adoption of sustainable and circular supply chain practices to assist mitigate against the projected harmful impacts of climate change. The UAE serves as a major aviation hub partly due to its geographical location, hence the operations of airliners must conform to the current practices which could reduce the number of pollutants such as Carbon Dioxide and other plastic waste. Corporate Social Responsibility considered a core practice towards the realization of sustainability objectives could be pursued by stakeholders in aviation, a norm that could compel management to enforce strategies to achieve Etihad's sustainability goals. The study employed qualitative thematic analysis to interpret various interview questions given by key informants. Purposive sampling was however used to solicit information relating to the chosen topic.
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The advent of globalization has led to the quest of many companies including airlines in the aviation industry embarking on a massive expansion to capture or extend their routes across different geographies, hence making Etihad Airways as a global airline due to its expansion strategy (Ali & Ahmad, 2014). The aviation sector is among the fastest and ever evolving sectors in today’s global business environment, partly owing to the high rate of international tourism and general business growth, thus creating huge pressure on airport infrastructures. Notwithstanding the rate of the sectors economic contribution to global economic GDP, its impact on sustainability requires a greater attention. The sector contributed 3.6% of worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) which is equal to $ 2.7 trillion, raised the number of job opportunities to 62.7 million (ICAO,2018; WEF, 2017).
Previous studies have pointed to the emission rate of aviation sector at the Abu Dhabi Airports in UAE which is operated by Etihad airlines with various recommendations given to how policy makers could help reduce or mitigate the effects of the carbon and other dangerous emissions (Bernabeo, Khalifeh, Andretta, Khatib, & Ghori, 2018). Alameeri et, al. (2017) revealed some of the sustainable practices of UAE national carriers and the areas of sustainable practices that received greater emphasis to the detriment of other significant sectors especially the environment and social which forms part of the foundation or pillars of sustainability. It is due to the above gap that this research seeks to investigate a holistic way Etihad airline in the aviation sector can operate within the realm of Sustainability and circular supply chain.
In relation to the above, the rate of carbon emissions from this sector during the 1990s was astronomically high due to the lack of investment in sustainable practices in the area of airline operations (ATAG, 2020), however, in recent times, the aviation industry through the call from various environmentalist towards environmental sustainability has led to a massive improvement in reducing their carbon emission through the investment in sustainable aviation fuels and zero-emission engines (García-Olivares, Solé, Samsó, & Ballabrera-Poy, 2020). Wang (2019) posited that, regardless of the measures that are implemented by airlines aimed at reducing Green House Gases (GHG) the quest to expanding their line of business could increase the emission levels.
The effects of the above has led to numerous researchers delving into sustainability in the aviation sector and other forms of transportation, hence renewable sustainable forms of transportation (García-Olivares, Solé, Samsó, & Ballabrera-Poy, 2020). Reduction of emissions levels in the aviation industry (Elhmoud & Kutty, 2020). The effective introduction and implementation of advanced technologies geared towards zero-emission levels by the manufacture of hybrid-electric propulsion systems capable of delivering the unique benefits above targets set (Bai, et al., 2020). The development of Sustainable Transport concept by Black (1996) described sustainable transport as the ability to satisfy present transport and mobility demands without destroying environmental capabilities of future transport needs (Black, 1996). Therefore, considering the three (3) pillars of sustainability such as the economic, environmental, and the social pillar, its general influence on society is significant to understanding both the benefits and negative impacts it has on communities where airport infrastructures are established (Gemmer, 2019). The effective balance of the three (3) pillars is crucial to sustainability (ICAO, 2019) and circular Supply chain initiative.