The ATI’s Head of Technology for Sustainability and Strategy, Adam Morton, joined a panel on Operational Efficiency & Non-CO2 at the recent Sustainable Skies World Summit (17th & 18th March, Farnborough). Chaired by Ian Jopson of NATS, it also included the industry experts Mark Bentall (Airbus), Erin Smith (Estuaire), Lahiru Ranasinghe (easyJet), and Marylin Bastin (Eurocontrol).
The panel reviewed lessons from the contrail avoidance work to date and offered a taste of what to expect from planned largescale UK trials. With some promising outcomes already delivered, particularly in continental Europe and North America, there is hope that a step change in ambition will be realised. Drawing on recent findings from the Jet Zero Taskforce’s Contrail Impact Mitigation Task & Finish Group, the future is likely to see more ambitious projects covering oceanic airspace over the North Atlantic. The number of flights could be orders of magnitude larger than any previous initiative, with multiple airlines participating in an Air Navigation Service Provider-led process.
A key aim of this undertaking is to help develop the tools and systems needed for a routine rollout of contrail-avoidance in flight planning. Additional benefits include demonstrating current systems’ capabilities and building community confidence, improved scientific understanding and advances in satellite imaging, contrail identification, and real-time tracking.
In a packed session the panel also touched on:
- the inevitable tension between operational efficiency in CO2 terms and contrail management
- how best to coordinate all of the necessary stakeholders, including ANSPs, airlines, regulatory bodies, technology providers, academia, and research
- resource availability in participating organisations to deliver CO2 and non-CO2 action at the same time.
So why should the UK increasingly take the lead on contrail avoidance? One key characteristic of contrails is their tendency to form more often at high latitudes. The northerly position of the UK and Europe means the region’s departing flights have a disproportionate contribution to contrail formation. With NATS handling over 2.5 million flights travelling over the UK and across the North Atlantic every year, it has the unmatched ability to support contrail avoidance through sustainability-driven routing. Other factors in the UK’s favour for leading on contrail avoidance include the Met Office’s weather modelling expertise and UK academic strength in the field. This is on top of ongoing crucial support from the UK government.
Adam Morton reinforced these points on the day, saying: “I completely agree that there is still low-hanging fruit in the area of operational measures and contrail avoidance. However, to extend the metaphor, we should not overlook that the UK also has some pretty long ladders in this respect. Now is the time to leverage those in this crucial area of aviation sustainability”.
The ATI will be discussing its on-going activities in aviation non-CO2 over the coming months. Look out for further coverage on the ATI website.
