A method of successive approximations is proposed for the evaluation of the time-correlation functions such as those that give the thermal transport coefficients of gases. The method is based on a calculation of the changes in correlations of appropriate functions of the molecular velocity which are a result of collisions in the gas. The decaying rates of the correlations are expressed as integrals of the differential collision cross section. When the first approximation is introduced in the expressions for thermal transport coefficients, results are obtained for the coefficient of binary diffusion and the viscosity and thermal conductivity of single-component systems which are identical with those of the first Chapman-Enskog solutions of the Boltzmann and Enskog equations. For the coefficients of viscosity and thermal conductivity in multicomponent systems, it is shown that the first approximation leads to expressions of the form of the Sutherland and Wassiljewa relations, respectively.