Etihad Airways has signed contrail management contract with SATAVIA to enable contrail prevention across daily flight schedules thereby accelerating the airline’s progress towards climate neutral operations.
The partnership will build on a previous proof-of-concept engagement to expand the scope for contrail management within day-to-day flight operations and collaborate on the generation of future carbon credits from contrail management activity.
Mariam Al Qubaisi, Head of Sustainability and Excellence, Etihad Airways said: “Our collaboration with SATAVIA illustrates the possibility of credible sustainability advances in day-to-day commercial operations. In 2022 alone, SATAVIA technology has enabled us to eliminate thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent climate impact. We are delighted to sign this pioneering contract with SATAVIA at WFES, signalling our intent to tackle aviation’s non-CO2 impacts with cutting-edge science and ground-breaking technical innovation.”
Dr Adam Durant, SATAVIA CEO and Founder, said: “By implementing minimal changes to a small percentage of flights, eco-conscious operators like Etihad can eliminate most of their non-CO2 climate footprint with little to no impact on day-to-day operations and on shorter timescales than other green aviation interventions. By implementing contrail management across their flight schedules, Etihad will once again blaze a trail for sustainable flight operations.”
Aircraft-generated condensation trails, or contrails, cause surface warming responsible for up to two-thirds of aviation’s climate impact, significantly outweighing direct CO2 emissions from aircraft engines. SATAVIA claims that its contrail management platform, DECISIONX: NETZERO, optimises commercial flight plans for greener operations, implementing small routing changes on a minority of flights to avoid the formation of persistent warming contrails.
In addition to enabling contrail management in day-to-day flight operations, SATAVIA conducts climate impact analysis for conversion into future carbon credits to be shared with Etihad.