Luxaviation is working alongside ForeFlight and Breakthrough Energy in order to avoid contrails and reduce its environmental impact.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently published a report that concluded contrails account for about 35 per cent of aviation’s global warming impact. Contrails form behind aircraft when hot, humid exhaust mixes with colder air at high altitudes, causing water vapour to condense and freeze into ice crystals.

ForeFlight is working with Breakthrough Energy to explore how its software tools, which analyse weather forecasts, satellite imagery and other data to model and detect contrails, can help business aviation operators lessen their environmental impact.

“Our initial plan is to begin offering ways for operators to visualise areas of possible contrail formation in ForeFlight Dispatch,” says Henrik Hansen, ForeFlight’s chief technology officer. “Dispatchers at Luxaviation and elsewhere using ForeFlight already have access to our most powerful flight planning tools to help pilots avoid turbulence, icing and storms. So, the seemingly next step is surfacing areas where contrails could be created. As the research continues to evolve, we’re excited to explore new and innovative ways to integrate the models and data produced by Breakthrough Energy.”

Breakthrough Energy says that slightly changing the route of five per cent of flights could eliminate most contrail-inducing warming.

“By expanding our efforts into contrail avoidance with ForeFlight, Breakthrough Energy is demonstrating that innovative collaboration is key to reducing aviation’s climate impact,” says Matteo Mirolo, head of contrails policy and strategy. “Working with ForeFlight is an important step to reaching more aviation operators around the world. We look forward to continuing to find ways to put this useful information in front of pilots and to meaningfully mitigate warming contrails.”

Luxaviation takes a holistic approach to sustainability, supporting technologies that enable the visibility, management and mitigation of aviation’s nuanced environmental impacts, including those derived from non-CO2 components. As Patrick Hansen, Luxaviation Group CEO, explains: “We consider corporate sustainability as an integral part of our business strategy and integrate sustainability into our decision-making processes.”

“Our group has been an early supporter of the ForeFlight story. We are proud to be a strategic partner and support its ongoing development. ForeFlight provides an exceptional solution and continuously improves its features, providing situational awareness and an added layer of safety for our operations around the world,” states Robert Fisch, Luxaviation Group chief aviation officer.