The Impact of Blockchain on the Aviation System

This paper aims to measure the impact and time to implementation of blockchain technology in the aviation system from a multidimensional, interdisciplinary standpoint through a web-based Delphi study, including experts from various subsector of the aviation system, as well as experts with a technological respectively blockchain background.
The panelists predict the highest impact in the sector of air cargo, global distribution, and settlement. They assign a lower impact to the use cases of frequent flyer programs, baggage handling, and compensation management. Regarding the years to mainstream implementation, the experts predict, for most of the cases, a time horizon of 2-5 years. Overall, the experts believe that the blockchain technology will be implemented cautiously and incrementally in the form of private or consortium network instead of drastically changing business models.
While different proposals of use-cases for blockchain in the aviation industry were made in recent years, they often lack an assessment of meaningfulness of the application and do not take into account the particular circumstances and challenges of the industry. This paper answers recent calls for more content on blockchain in the aviation system as well as in-depth, multidimensional, and interdisciplinary studies, thus actively contributing to the discussion of blockchain technology within the aviation system.