Google, alongside NATS, Contrails.org, Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge, and the Met Office, launched Operation Blue Skies, a 30-month trial using AI to help airlines avoid climate-warming contrails across the North Atlantic's Shanwick airspace.

Key Details

• 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.

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