Contrary to what some people seem to believe, contrails are not a way for the evil governments of the world use to poison us. They can, however, be harmful to the environment, with some studies ...

Reducing aviation’s contribution to climate change requires understanding all our industry’s impacts and identifying ways to address them. Condensation trails — or contrails — form when airplanes fly ...

The challenge of addressing aviation’s non-carbon dioxide emissions is receiving greater attention, with the climatic impact associated with tell-tale signs in the sky coming under increased study.

Analysis of in-flight emissions from an Airbus A350-900 using 100% sustainable aviation fuel indicates a reduction of 35% in soot particle numbers, and a halving of contrail ice-crystal formation per ...

ALBANY, N.Y. (Dec. 4, 2025) — If you look up at the sky on a clear day, chances are you’ll notice thin, white clouds following behind airplanes— also known as contrails. The formation of these wispy ...

Matteo Mirolo, head of contrail policy and strategy at Breakthrough Energy, said “business aviation not only can but must supercharge” its climate-impact work. Credit: Mark Wagner/Aviation-Images ...

TOULOUSE—Airbus is leading a new European research project, including aircraft ground testing, to study how the composition of a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) influences the formation of contrails.

A new study allays fears that rerouting flights to avoid forming climate-warming contrails could result in inadvertently making climate warming worse. Researchers from Sorbonne Universite and the ...

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called for urgent action to deepen the understanding on the formation and climate impact of aviation contrails to develop effective mitigation ...

Some contrails can contribute to global warming. Contrails—pure ice clouds (“cirrus”) that form from aircraft exhaust under specific cold conditions—can trap heat in the atmosphere, sometimes creating ...