CICONIA's objective is to extend the reduction of climate impact effects.

CICONIA will focus on improving the European understanding of the overall non-CO2 effects of air traffic, how these climate effects can be the most accurately described, measured, and forecasted with MET offices and Climate impact providers, and how they can be taken in account in different climate-efficient trajectory trade-offs.

The project will engage operational stakeholders working alongside the trajectory lifecycle: Airlines with their OCC, Network, and Air Traffic Control. CICONIA's goal within SESAR3 is to bring together all key stakeholders to support the development of environmentally effective, economically balanced, and operationally viable mitigation measures from the short to medium term. CICONIA aims at developing solutions to prepare the overall ecosystem (including aircraft, ATC systems, weather…) to operate in this context. Our strategy is broken down into the five following objectives:

1) Improve weather forecasting capabilities tailored for operational mitigation concepts, and provide technical enablers definitions and recommendations that will feed a better understanding of the stakes

2) Improve climate impact assessments tailored for operational mitigation concepts, at aircraft trajectory level and larger-scale traffic

3) Define and assess potential Concepts of Operations, in line with the general SESAR CONOPS in order to provide policy makers with widely agreed recommendations. The CONOPS will cover the full trajectory-based operations (TBO) cycle envisaged by SESAR from planning to execution. The proposed assessment of the CONOPS impact will integrate climate metrics, economics, and impact on operations.

4) Demonstrate the operational feasibility (with fast-time and human-in-the-loop simulations, but also with some flight trials) of minimising persistent / strongly warming contrails in the strategic (e.g. planning), and tactical phases of the flight.

5) Produce wide and effective communication and dissemination of CICONIA outcomes as they are key to make the aviation sector (including standardisation bodies, political bodies, specialised audience, and public communities) aware about the project results, facilitating their exploitation and allowing stakeholders, and in particular external bodies that support and/or drive the international standardisation, to provide their feedback on the project activities, thus closely connecting the project to the standardisation and regulatory framework.