Air France trial finds small diversions cut contrail climate impact
Air France tested route adjustments on nearly 4,300 transatlantic flights to see whether harmful contrails could be avoided, and reports an eight percent overall reduction in contrail climate impact.
Air France examined nearly 4,300 transatlantic flights to test whether adjusted routing could avoid particularly climate-damaging contrails.
Between February and April, 245 flights were identified as having potentially high climate impact. Of those, 130 were actually rerouted.
According to the airline, the climate impact of contrails across the whole trial fell by eight percent, equivalent to avoiding roughly 22,000 tonnes of CO2. On the flights that were rerouted, the contrail climate impact dropped by 57 percent.
The effect was heavily concentrated. Three percent of the flights studied accounted for 25 percent of the total climate impact from contrails.
Sources
- aerotelegraph.comTest von Air France ergab: Kleine Umwege helfen gegen klimaschädliche Kondensstreifen