A new study by Brussels-based lobby group Transport & Environment suggests that altering the flight paths of only a small percentage of flights could cut contrail warming by 50pc by 2040, at a minimal cost of less than €4 per flight.
Contrails, which act as artificial clouds, have a significant warming effect, with 80pc of contrail warming resulting from just 3pc of flights, primarily during winter and nighttime departures over key regions including North America and Europe.
The research highlights the substantial climate benefits of contrail avoidance—15 to 40 times greater than the CO2 penalty incurred from slight increases in fuel burn—making it more than 15 times cheaper than other climate solutions like carbon capture.
Recommendations include implementing contrail monitoring for EU flights starting in 2027 and prioritizing funding for research to incentivize early adoption of contrail mitigation technologies in the aviation sector.
Carlos Lopez de la Osa, aviation technical manager, shared: “The aviation industry is being offered a simple and cheap way to reduce its climate impact. Some industry actors overstate the scientific uncertainty of warming contrails, but the climate benefits of contrail avoidance are huge and solutions are improving by the day. “By identifying the very few flights which cause warming contrails and tweaking their flight paths, we can have an immediate effect on contrails warming. So let’s no longer discuss whether we have to do it, but how to do it. “There are very few climate solutions that can be implemented so quickly, at so little cost and with little impact to industry and consumers. But this can only happen if we include contrail mitigation in our climate targets and adopt groundbreaking policies to monitor, avoid contrails and mandate solutions. “We can and must make our skies free of warming contrails in the next 10 years, for the sake of the planet. Policy makers and the industry cannot afford to lose the climate opportunity of this decade.”
