Life Cycle Assessment of the Airbus A330-200 Aircraft

This thesis addresses the environmental problems of the aviation sector, consisting in a environmental impact assessment of the Airbus A330-200 aircraft. In order to do so, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the aircraft was performed, which takes into account the environmental impacts of the aircraft from a cradle-to-grave perspective, meaning the entire aircraft life cycle is analysed. In order to do so, the Simapro software was used to model the manufacturing, operation, and end-of-life phases of the A330-200 aircraft. Thus, through the Life Cycle Assessment of the aircraft, guidelines and conclusions for improving the environmental performance of the aircraft are provided. Being so, this thesis was the result of a collaboration with a Portuguese company that specialises in life cycle assessments, named ’3 Drivers Engenharia, Inovação e Ambiente’, under the guidance of Professor Paulo Ribeiro. In addition, this work was carried out with the assistance of the airliner ’TAP Portugal’, who provided A330-200 aircraft manuals in which indispensable data was contained, as well as valuable expertise opinions in many visits to TAP, which were carried out throughout the development of this work. The results obtained with the Simapro software indicate that the operation phase of aircraft account for most of the environmental impacts, while the manufacturing of the aircraft is responsible for a much smaller contribution. The end-of-life scenario results in a small positive contribution for all environmental impacts considered, according to the Airbus ’Process for Advanced Management of End of Life of Aircraft’ project.