Our new contrail avoidance trial in Asia-Pacific

In a new initiative to reduce aviation's climate impact, Google is collaborating with Cathay Pacific to test artificial intelligence technology that assists pilots in avoiding the creation of heat-trapping contrails. By making minor altitude adjustments, initial trials demonstrated a 40% reduction in the warming effect of these flight streaks. This method is being expanded across the Asia-Pacific region, the world's fastest-growing aviation market.

Contrails, those white streaks trailing behind planes, can trap heat and warm the planet. Experts are using AI to help pilots fly at slightly different altitudes to evade creating them. This simple change has already cut down the warming impact of flights by around 40%. Contrails contribute to roughly one-third of aviation's total climate impact.

Over the past few years, efforts to reduce them have progressed from AI research models to real-world trials in the United States, the North Atlantic, and now, in the Asia-Pacific region.

The partnership with Cathay Pacific, the first commercial airline in Asia for this trial, involves ultra-long-haul flights. Early trials on 80 flights have achieved an estimated 40% reduction in the warming impact of contrails by following contrail-avoidance routes. These adjustments, which pilots and flight teams routinely make for various operational reasons, are not expected to affect passengers or flight safety.

The system uses AI predictions, satellite imagery, and advanced weather intelligence to identify contrail-forming zones in advance, enabling flight teams to plan slight altitude shifts around them.

In-flight Wi-Fi and Cathay Pacific's Electronic Flight Folder (EFF) provide pilots with live insights from dynamic forecasts, integrating them with usual operational metrics without disrupting standard cockpit workflows. A trial involving over 100 flights across Cathay Pacific's network showed that over 80 flights followed contrail-avoidance routes, with Google's satellite imagery analysis estimating a 40% reduction in contrail warming impact.

The Hong Kong-Singapore corridor, which often encounters conditions conducive to persistent contrail formation, accounted for more than 50% of the trial's total emissions reductions.

The trials are now expanding into a larger second phase of flight testing, with Google partnering with Contrails.org, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing contrail mitigation research. This collaboration aims to gain a broader understanding of contrail avoidance across different operating environments in Asia and the transpacific region, contributing to global contrails research.

Contrail mitigation is considered one of the most immediately available, scalable, and cost-effective ways to reduce aviation's climate footprint, and it can be initiated now with today's aircraft and fuel. By advancing open contrails research together, the goal is to accelerate progress in contrail science and unlock a promising and cost-effective climate solution for aviation.