Google and Cathay Pacific are testing contrail avoidance on ultra-long-haul flights. Contrails are the white streaks behind aircraft, and some persist and trap heat. Google says they cause roughly a third of aviation's climate impact. Its system combines AI forecasts, satellite imagery and weather data to find contrail-forming zones. Dispatchers and pilots then plan slight altitude changes around them. Cathay Pacific sends the forecasts to the flight deck via in-flight Wi-Fi and its Electronic Flight Folder. Early trials targeted more than 100 flights, and over 80 followed avoidance routes. Google estimates those flights cut contrail warming by about 40%. The Hong Kong-Singapore corridor accounted for over half the trial's reductions. A larger second phase is now starting, with the nonprofit Contrails.org involved.
What changed
Google's contrail avoidance trials ran in the US and over the North Atlantic.
What it unlocks
Testing contrail-avoiding altitude changes on flights over 16 hours in Asia-Pacific.
- over 80 flights on avoidance routes
- ~40% less contrail warming
- 100+ flights targeted in trial
- one route = 50%+ of reductions
What you need to act on it
- an airline partnership with Google
- in-flight connectivity to the cockpit
Sources