This study investigates the effect of organisational readiness, innovation and airport size and ownership on digital change at airports. Data is collected from a survey of managers at 94 airports worldwide and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Organisational readiness is found to have a direct effect on digital change. Organisational readiness also has a direct effect on innovation, which subsequently affects digital change. Airport size has a direct effect on digital change while the effect of ownership is not significant. The findings show that successful development of organisational readiness can be used to speed up the rate of innovation needed for digital change at airports.

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The increasing scale of, and demand for, civil air transport worldwide has necessitated a greater volume of people travelling to and from airports. The vast majority of these journeys are made by private cars, which has resulted in traffic congestion and raised levels of air pollution in and around airports. Subsequently, airports are re-evaluating their approach to ground access mode choice and considering how to moderate the reliance on private cars. Based on a survey of passengers at Manchester Airport in the UK, attitude statements pertaining to psychological constructs from the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Norm-Activation Theory, combined with key factors relating to the passenger's trip, are used to identify eight behaviourally distinct groups of passengers with varying potential to reduce their private car use. Two of these groups, described as the Conflicted Greens and the Pessimistic Lift Seekers, are identified as having the greatest potential to reduce private car use to airports. Analysis reveals the need for decision makers to address the existing attitude-behaviour 'gap' that can prevent positive environmental attitudes being translated into the use of more sustainable modes, as well as tackling the perceived difficulty some passengers associate with using these modes.

Air passenger traffic in the UK has increased significantly over the last 30 years, and is forecast to continue to grow for the foreseeable future. This has clear implications for airport capacity in the UK, and is expected to pose a number of important challenges for UK airports. A key challenge is likely to involve the management of airport surface access.Currently, airport surface access in the UK is heavily reliant on trips by private car. Growing demand for air travel has generated increasing volumes of surface traffic at UK airports, which has resulted in congestion on local road networks and raised levels of pollution from vehicle emissions. It is likely that surface access issues will become even more acute in the future, given the dominance of the private car as the preferred mode of choice and the forecast growth in UK air travel.The paper aims to offer an airport management perspective on airport surface access in the UK. Semi-structured interviews with key personnel responsible for surface access management at 14 UK airports revealed a wide variety of surface access issues and management policies. The need to reduce the share of journeys made by private car is identified as a key issue, with a particular focus on reducing 'kiss-and-fly' journeys for passengers. While reducing private car journeys may yield environmental benefits, such strategies are largely at odds with substantial commercial pressures to maximise the revenue potential of airport parking.

Sustainable development reflects an underlying tension to achieve economic growth whilst addressing environmental challenges, and this is particularly the case for the aviation sector. Although much of the aviation-related focus has fallen on reducing aircraft emissions, airports have also been under increasing pressure to support the vision of a low carbon energy future. One of the main sources of airport-related emissions is passenger journeys to and from airports (the surface access component of air travel), which is the focus of this paper. Two aspects associated with the relationship between sustainable development and airport surface access are considered. Firstly, there is an evaluation of three technological innovation options that will enable sustainable transport solutions for surface access journeys: telepresence systems to reduce drop-off/pick-up trips, techniques to improve public transport and options to encourage the sharing of rides. Secondly, the role of behavioral change for surface access journeys from a theoretical perspective, using empirical data from Manchester airport, is evaluated. Finally, the contribution of OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2013, 5 1618 technology and behavioral intervention measures to improvements in sustainable development are discussed.