UAV influence in the emissions of airborne cargo transportation

Abstract

The global market of unmanned aircraft has been strongly growing for the past years and will remain doing so in the future. At the same time, the air traffic from cargo transportation has recovered from the world economic crisis and is experiencing further growth. Given the multiple advantages that UAVs present for cargo transportation, a number of companies have started to study their use for shipping of packages and mail, both in short-and long-range routes. During recent years, international organizations have undertaken the task to create regulations and sanction the current and future merger of manned and unmanned air traffic. The effects of this trend are still unclear, and so are the implications of replacing nowadays cargo transportation with UAVs.In this work, the market of manned commercial transportation in the European Union is presented. That includes routes, schedules, mission structure, and environmental impact. Starting from the current situation and taking in account the future trends of air cargo, the impact that UAVs will have in air cargo transportation is studied in various scenarios. Including different UAV and environmental regulations, speed of implementation, or mission strategies like diurnal vs nocturnal cargo distribution.