Top 6 Modern Books on Aviation Industry (2025)

Aviation has quietly become one of the most complex, high-stakes systems in global business. It sits at the crossroads of safety, geopolitics, energy, tech, and consumer behavior. If you work in or around airlines, airports, aerospace, sustainability, or even data in travel, this year was a good moment to refresh your mental model of how this machine really runs.

The books below are a compact “industry map” for where aviation is now and where it is heading. I picked six modern titles that reflect the core commercial engine of air transport, plus the sustainability and technology shifts that are shaping decisions.

Why 2025 Is An Important Time For Aviation Industry Knowledge?

A few shifts are making the current period unusually interesting:

• Europe’s ReFuelEU Aviation rules start with a 2% sustainable aviation fuel supply mandate in 2025, with ramp-up targets stretching out to 2050. This is forcing real budget, procurement, and strategy choices right now.
  EASA
• Airlines are balancing strong demand with capacity and supply-chain constraints, which changes fleet, network, and pricing decisions across the board.
  BCG Global
• Sustainability is no longer a side topic. It is moving into operational and board-level conversations through life-cycle accounting, SAF, and infrastructure investment.
  EASA
• New mobility concepts are maturing in parallel with mainstream air transport, making “what counts as aviation” a bigger strategic question than it was five years ago.
  businessaviation.aero

The industry is not just recovering or optimizing. It is re-architecting parts of itself.

Essential Aviation Topic Areas Worth Covering

These themes show up across almost every serious 2024–2026 aviation conversation:

• Airline business models and network economics
• Airport operations and performance management
• Safety, regulation, and the evolving policy landscape
• Decarbonization pathways, especially SAF
• Measurement frameworks such as life-cycle assessment
• Emerging technology and the long tail of future mobility

The books below collectively hit most of this terrain.

What Are The Top Modern Books on Aviation Industry?

Air Transport Explained, by Saeed M Nahdi (2025)

This is a clean, beginner-friendly map of the modern aviation ecosystem. It walks through airline models, airport operations, air traffic control, safety systems, environmental pressure, and the next wave of tech like urban air mobility and sustainable fuels. The positioning is clear. It’s for students, professionals crossing into aviation, and curious industry-adjacent readers who want the whole system explained in one place.

If you want a single on-ramp book, this is the one that sets the foundation. It is especially useful before you jump into more specialized sustainability, finance, or operations titles because it gives you the shared vocabulary and the “why this part exists” context that many technical books assume.

Managing Airport Corporate Performance, by Dimitrios J. Dimitriou (2024)

Airports are not just physical infrastructure. They are data-heavy, multi-stakeholder businesses with complex incentives. This 2024 title focuses on how airport operators can use business intelligence and sustainability-focused management practices to improve corporate performance and decision quality.

For anyone working in airport leadership, analytics, consulting, or policy, this is a timely look at how the airport side is modernizing. Even if you are airline-side, it helps you understand how airport operators think about investment, service levels, and the sustainability transition that will shape fees and capacity planning.

Life Cycle Assessment in Aviation, by T. Hikmet Karakoc (2024)

If you have felt that aviation sustainability debates sometimes skate past measurement details, this one grounds the conversation. It covers life-cycle assessment across aircraft operations, maintenance, engines, airport activities, construction, access traffic, and waste.

This is a strong pick for ESG teams, researchers, and strategy people who need to move from “we should decarbonize” to “we can quantify trade-offs properly.” It also aligns well with the policy direction in Europe and the growing demand for consistent accounting of aviation’s environmental footprint.

Sustainable Aviation Fuels, by Mohammad Aslam (2025)

SAF has become the center of gravity for aviation decarbonization, but the gap between ambition and supply is still wide. This 2025 volume pulls together technology pathways, feedstocks, conversion processes, emissions, and techno-economic and lifecycle assessments.

It is more research-heavy than a general industry book, but it is extremely current for 2025 planning. If your job touches fuel procurement, climate strategy, or policy, this is the kind of reference that helps you separate marketing claims from feasible near-term pathways.

Aviation Industry Trends – Technology Advancements, Regulations, and Sustainability, by Zindoga Mukandavire (2025)

This conference-based 2025 collection is a wide-angle snapshot of what industry and academic voices see as the near-future agenda. It connects regulation, aircraft tech shifts like electrification and autonomy, and the governance side of aviation’s push toward carbon neutrality.

This is useful if you want a single book that reflects “what people are debating right now” rather than one narrow subdomain. It works well for professionals who need cross-functional awareness for strategy, innovation, or investment discussions.

Sustainable Aviation Innovations, Advancements, and Destinations, by T. Hikmet Karakoc (2025)

Another 2025 proceedings volume, this one is more focused on practical and emerging research threads across sustainability, including future trends that may shape the next wave of operational and technology decisions.

I like this as a “what’s next after the basics” book. If you have already read a general overview and want a broader sampling of new ideas entering the pipeline, it gives you a forward-looking sense of where research, policy, and industry experiments are converging.

Final Thoughts on Modern Aviation Books

If you want a simple reading path, start with the ecosystem overview, then pick your lane. Airport leaders and analysts will get immediate value from the corporate performance and BI angle. Sustainability-focused roles can pair life-cycle assessment with the SAF deep dive. Strategy and innovation folks will likely enjoy the “trends and innovations” volumes as a fast way to stay current.

This mix should give you both the operating model of today’s aviation business and the pressure points that will shape 2026 planning.