Authors: Ioannis Panagiotopoulos, Apostolos Gotsias

Title: Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Return. The case of rational use of fuel in Aviation.

Abstract

The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy of airline companies includes the field of Fuel Management since this is the base of measurement for the emissions of aircrafts and on the same time it is the biggest expense for their everyday operations (Horder: 2003). There is a challenge for the achievement of an optimum fuel management that could bring savings of scale and no extra expenses for air- carriers. In other words, the challenge is the empowerment of Corporate Social Performance and the Corporate Financial Return due to CSR policies to the organization on parallel.

After careful consideration of the international specialized bibliography about CSR and the Economics of Aviation (Aupperle et. al.: 1985, Cochran & Wood: x.x., McWilliams & Siegel: 2001) we have detected an uninvestigated field concerning the interrelation between CSR Performance and the Financial Return specifically in the air- carriers. We examine quantitative and qualitative parameters in order to determine whether the application of CSR policies by the modern air- carriers with a special focus in the optimization of air fuel management can contribute in their financial results.