Google UK and the British government have launched a state-backed trial using artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the climate impact of aircraft contrails across an entire transatlantic flight corridor, described as the world’s first airspace-scale attempt at the problem, according to the search engine giant.
“Operation Blue Skies” will run within Shanwick Oceanic airspace, covering the eastern half of the North Atlantic corridor, which accounts for around 5% of global contrail warming.
Roughly 10,000 flights pass through the airspace during trial hours each year, and a small proportion that would otherwise cross contrail-sensitive zones will be slightly diverted or have altitude adjusted to prevent persistent, warming contrails forming.
Contrails form when water vapor in jet engine exhaust condenses and freezes around soot particles in the cold, humid upper atmosphere at cruising altitude. While many dissipate quickly, persistent contrails trap outgoing heat and account for roughly a third of aviation’s total climate impact.
The trial builds on previous work where Google worked with airlines like American Airlines, navigation providers like EUROCONTROL’s MUAC, and flight-planning software companies like FlightKeys to test AI-based contrail forecasting for individual airlines, showing that crews and controllers could make specific adjustments while still following normal procedures.
Operation Blue Skies expands that approach to an entire oceanic airspace for the first time.
It brings together a UK-led group that includes NATS, which will handle airspace operations and safety; Contrails.org, a non-profit that will lead the forecasting and trial design; Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge, which will evaluate the results; and the Met Office, which will create new contrail forecasting tools for the UK.
The 5 million pound program is partly funded by the 2.65 million pounds from the UK government’s Department for Transport, via the “Aerospace Technology Institute Programme,” with all administration grant funding directed to academic, non-profit, and aviation partners.
Google UK is participating on a pro bono basis, contributing 1.4 million pounds in-kind through AI research expertise, engineering time, and high-performance computing infrastructure.
Aviation minister Keir Mather said the government was looking for practical ways to make flying cleaner, adding that testing small tweaks to flight paths over the Atlantic could help cut the vapor trails left behind by aircraft.
Marc Stettler, professor of transport and the environment at Imperial College London, said a 2020 study had found that small changes to flight paths could reduce the climate impact of contrails and that the trial offered a chance to test that finding at a scale not previously attempted.
Stettler further remarked that Imperial’s role would be to independently assess the effects, from airline operations to climate benefits, and to provide the evidence needed to determine whether the approach could become part of routine aviation practice.
Research cited by Google suggests that contrail avoidance could be among the most cost-effective ways to cut aviation’s climate footprint, though addressing the issue at a meaningful scale requires combining scientific modelling, AI forecasting, and close operational coordination across air traffic management systems industry-wide.
The tech giant said it was inviting further participation from the aviation industry as the program develops, with the trial intended to provide a validated blueprint for reducing aviation’s climate impact more broadly.