International Journal of Business and Management; Vol. 12, No. 11; 2017 ISSN 1833-3850 E-ISSN 1833-8119 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 52 Corporate Social Responsibility Applications in Turkish Airport System Nuriye Güreş¹, Harun Yılmaz¹, Seda Arslan¹, Cemal Durmuşçelebi¹ & Cevher Yüksel² ¹ School of Civil Aviation, Iskenderun Technical University, Hatay, Turkey ² School of Foreign Languages, Iskenderun Technical University, Hatay, Turkey Correspondence: Seda Arslan, School of Civil Aviation, Iskenderun Technical University, Iskenderun, 31200 Hatay, Turkey. E-mail: seda.arslan@iste.edu.tr Received: August 3, 2017 Accepted: September 17, 2017 Online Published: October 18, 2017 doi:10.5539/ijbm.v12n11p52 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v12n11p52 Abstract Businesses in aviation industry, where fierce competition has been encountered, have had to pay more attention to their relationships with the environment to increase their market share and to survive. In this context, enterprises have started to focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR) applications to provide sustainability in terms of environmental, social and economic. Although there are many academic studies on this subject in other sectors, it is relatively less in aviation sector. Therefore, in this study, CSR applications in terms of enterprises operating in Turkish airports have been analysed using GRI (Global Reporting Initiatives) scale for the airport system. Within the extent of the research, the necessary information has been obtained through the reports published by the companies, internet pages and social media accounts etc. for CSR activities. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. As a result of the research, it has been determined that the majority of enterprises do not share their CSR applications publicly enough, even if they perform most of these activities. According to the results, suggestions have been made to the airport and terminal operators to apply more effective CSR activities. Keywords: Turkish aviation industry, airport system, corporate social responsibility (CSR) 1. Introduction The term “sustainable aviation” has become commonplace because aviation has a key role in illustrating sustainability as an important source of economic growth and environmental impacts (Kuo et al., 2016). In the aviation industry, where the audience is millions of ordinary people, the value brought by CSR can be particularly important. Therefore, the corporations need to gain a favorable reputation on CSR to have steady customers, competitive advantage over competitors and strengthen their sustainability (Karaman & Akman, 2017). The largest environmental impact of aircraft as air pollution, noise pollution and global warming, are often excluded from regulatory attempts at controlling environmental impact, thus, demonstrating a need for CSR in the aviation sector (Durmaz et al., 2011). The aviation sector affects the world in economic, social and environmental aspects. While the industry creates a world $ 2.7 trillion economy, it generates approximately 63 million jobs, 10 million of which are direct. The airport system in the aviation sector has also directly and indirectly reached approximately 6 million jobs worldwide (ATAG, 2016). Airports need to manage CSR strategies for sustainable development (Chang & Yeh, 2016; Koç & Durmaz, 2015). In aviation industry, an airport needs to balance its profits and social impacts, by considering the interests of all stakeholders, such as residents, tenants, airlines and travellers (Rawson & Hooper, 2012). It is important for airports to provide collective useful feedback such as environmental protection, economic value creation and social services in terms of competitive advantage and sustainable development. Thus, in order to meet the expectations of stakeholders, airport operators have begun to focus on CSR implementations. In long term, the airport which has a powerful economic structure, socially meets stakeholders expectations and minimizes negative environmental impacts could be sustainable. In short term companies should provide competitive products and services to sustain economically and also protect the natural and human resources to provide