SourceGoogle and UK Government launch AI contrail avoidance trial
Because contrails account for roughly one third of aviation's climate impact, this trial provides a scalable way to reduce flight-related warming. Success could create a global blueprint for managing airspaces more sustainably.
- The trial covers Shanwick airspace, the eastern half of the North Atlantic corridor, which accounts for approximately 5% of global contrail warming.
- The 30-month program consists of two operational trials of about four months each; roughly 10,000 flights per year pass through Shanwick airspace during trial hours, with a small percentage slightly deviated to avoid forming warming contrails.
- The program is co-funded by industry partners and the Department for Transport (DfT) through the ATI Programme, a partnership between the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST), and Innovate UK; 100% of government grant funding is allocated to academic, non-profit, and aviation partners.
- Google is participating on a pro-bono basis, contributing £1.4 million in-kind through AI research expertise, engineering time, and high-performance computing infrastructure.