Google and the UK government have launched Operation Blue Skies, a 30-month trial using artificial intelligence to predict and help avoid climate-warming contrails across Shanwick airspace, the eastern half of the North Atlantic corridor. The programme will test whether small altitude or routing adjustments by commercial aircraft can reduce warming effects without materially disrupting transatlantic operations.
The project brings together the Department for Transport, NATS, the Met Office, Contrails.org, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London. Around 10,000 flights are expected to pass through the test windows each year, but only a small share will be asked to make minor deviations. Google is contributing on a pro bono basis, with its in-kind support valued at about £1.4 million in AI expertise, engineering time and computing infrastructure.
Operational trials are scheduled for the winters of 2026/27 and 2027/28. The system combines Google’s models with weather and satellite data to identify likely contrail-forming airspace, then flags those zones for air traffic control and crews. The wider £5 million programme is funded by the UK government through the Department for Transport and the ATI framework.