French regional airline Amelia is extending its use of an approach to reducing contrails developed jointly with Thales and Breakthrough Energy Contrails. Trial operations with its fleet of Embraer ERJ-145s conducted on flights out of Paris and Valladolid in Spain have resulted in reductions in non-carbon-dioxide emissions assessed as being equivalent to four tons of CO2.

Since the trial started in June, Thales has integrated its Flights Footprint software with Amelia’s Operational Control Center platform to help the airline determine alternative trajectories for flight plans that will reduce contrails. When significant contrail impact is detected, the technology proposes changes to the aircraft altitude without changing the route, while keeping any additional fuel consumption below a 3% increase.

Contrails generated by aircraft engines trap heat from the sun and contribute to global warming in a similar way to greenhouse gases. Last week, the companies reported that their trial operations established the new approach can cut the climate impact of flights by at least 40%.

Breakthrough Energy Contrails produces climate models to support the Thales software in work that has been partly funded by the French government through its Decor project. After each flight, climate models combined with meteorological data are assessed to establish the effectiveness of operations. A camera is used to observe the formation of contrails.