A collaborative effort involving the UK Government and leading figures in the aviation industry is underway to use artificial intelligence in reducing contrails over the North Atlantic, thereby diminishing aviation’s climate impact on a larger scale.
Contrails, or condensation trails, are the thin white lines seen trailing behind aircraft in a clear sky. These formations occur when water vapor condenses around soot particles from jet exhaust. Despite their seemingly benign appearance, contrails contribute to about a third of aviation’s climate impact. We are now unveiling a new initiative aimed at helping the industry reduce these contrails.
Following our initial research on using AI to lessen contrail warming, we have partnered with various stakeholders in the aviation sector. This includes airlines such as American Airlines, EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC), and flight planning software providers like FlightKeys. These collaborations have demonstrated that avoiding contrails is both scientifically validated and feasible in operational settings. Our AI-driven forecasts allow flight crews and air traffic controllers to make precise adjustments to avoid areas sensitive to contrails, all while maintaining normal flight operations.
The next significant step involves expanding our efforts from trials with individual airlines to a coordinated strategy to mitigate contrails across an entire flight corridor. We are launching Operation Blue Skies, the first government-supported trial that aims to avoid contrails on a scale covering an entire oceanic airspace.
Operation Blue Skies will focus on the eastern part of the North Atlantic corridor, specifically Shanwick airspace, which accounts for roughly 5% of global contrail warming. This 30-month program includes two operational trials, each lasting about four months. During trial periods each year, approximately 10,000 flights from hundreds of cities will traverse Shanwick airspace, with a small portion of these flights being slightly rerouted to prevent them from creating significant warming contrails.
Achieving contrail avoidance at the scale of airspace demands collaboration among scientific, technological, and air traffic management sectors. Operation Blue Skies unites a leading UK consortium to transform advanced research into practical operations.
The program is co-funded by industry partners and the Department for Transport (DfT) through the Aerospace Technology Institute Programme, a joint initiative involving the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST), and Innovate UK. All government grant funding is directed exclusively to academic, non-profit, and aviation partners to ensure that public funds enhance national scientific capabilities.
Google UK is participating pro bono, contributing £1.4 million through AI research expertise, engineering resources, and high-performance computing to support open climate science.
Contrails are a pressing but solvable climate issue facing aviation today. Research indicates that avoiding contrails could be among the most cost-effective methods to lessen the industry’s climate impact.
Tackling this challenge calls for innovative approaches that integrate scientific insights, advanced technology, and operational innovation. Operation Blue Skies aims to prove that addressing the contrail challenge is operationally viable and provides a validated model for managing airspaces to significantly cut aviation’s climate impact.
If you are part of the aviation industry and wish to contribute to or participate in contrail mitigation efforts, we encourage you to reach out to our team to explore opportunities for involvement.
