Aviation contributes significantly to climate change through carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and non-carbon-dioxide effects, such as contrails, which trap heat and amplify warming. Quantifying these combined impacts is critical to identifying the flight paths that contribute the most to global warming.

Solution 0419 provides a methodology to assess the climate impact of flight paths by using advanced “CO2-equivalence metrics.” These metrics—global warming potential (GWP), global temperature change potential (GTP), and average temperature response (ATR)—evaluate the combined effect of CO2 and non-CO2 emissions over various time horizons (20, 50, and 100 years).

The methodology supports operational decisions by identifying areas prone to contrail formation, enabling long-haul flight planners, particularly in the busy Europe–US corridor, to choose routes that minimise climate impact. It also allows assessment of future routing options under different atmospheric scenarios and evaluates the reliability of various climate metrics.

While still at low maturity, this solution aligns with efforts to establish climate-friendly practices and could inform future standardisation or regulatory initiatives on sustainable aviation.

The benefits include providing actionable insights to air traffic management (ATM) and airlines to inform flight planning at various time scales, and supporting aviation’s transition to greener operations by integrating climate impact considerations into trajectory optimisation processes.