We are excited to announce our latest research findings on climate-friendly flight planning, now available as a pre-print on Nature Portfolio journal communications earth & environment.
This study, authored by Abolfazl Simorgh and Manuel Soler from the Aircraft Operations Lab, and in the framework of the RefMap project, reveals that implementing climate-optimal flight paths—those that change routes only when substantial climate advantages are feasible—can effectively reduce climate impact without major disruptions to normal operations.
Simorgh, A., Soler, M. Climate-optimized flight planning can effectively reduce the environmental footprint of aviation in Europe at low operational costs. Commun Earth Environ 6, 66 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02031-8
Key insights from this study:
- Flight planning is the most effective at mitigating contrail-induced climate impact.
- Improving the prediction of contrail-forming regions and their effects is crucial.
- Reducing other non-CO2 climate effects is more costly and requires significant rerouting.
- Climate-optimized routes tend to favor lower altitudes and reduced speeds.
- Summer offers the least potential for climate impact mitigation, requiring minimal rerouting.
- Meteorological conditions serve as key indicators for assessing the achievable mitigation potential before planning climate-optimized routes.
Abstract
The non-CO2 climate impacts of aviation, such as ozone formation and contrail-cirrus, are highly sensitive to the location and time of emissions, underscoring the role of aircraft trajectories in mitigating their corresponding effects. We present a comprehensive analysis exploring the potential of climate-optimized flight planning to mitigate the aviation sector’s climate impact. We demonstrate that the effectiveness of flight planning in mitigating climate effects is closely tied to daily meteorological conditions. Therefore, smart adoption of climate-optimal trajectories, i.e., rerouting only under conditions where large climate benefits are achievable, effectively mitigates climate impact while maintaining operational feasibility through minimal changes to standard operations. Overall, for a subset of European flights, a reduction in climate impacts of 12.5% and 21.3% is achievable with an increase in operational costs of 0.2% and 2.0%, respectively. Seasonal variation is considerable, with summer showing the lowest climate mitigation potential and autumn the highest, linked to the likelihood of contrail formation. The findings suggest that flight planning is most effective at mitigating the climate impact of contrails, accounting for over 80% of the net mitigation potential. Our work offers aviation policymakers a clearer understanding of the potential climate benefits achievable through flight planning.