Operation Blue Skies: AI will divert flights over the North Atlantic to avoid contrails

A £5 million British trial, over two winters, will test AI-driven drag avoidance in Shanwick Ocean Space, with independent verification by Imperial College.

Launched on 18 August 2026, Operation Blue Skies is presented as the first state-backed attempt to manage contrail avoidance on the scale of an entire oceanic airspace. The chosen terrain is the Shanwick control zone on the North Atlantic, which is particularly suitable for their formation. The programme runs over two winter seasons, 2026-2027 and 2027-2028, for a budget of around £5 million.

The climate issue justifies the effort: contrails alone account for nearly a third of aviation's climate impact. Modelling suggests that an altitude adjustment of up to 2,000 feet would reduce their formation by 60 to 70%, at the cost of about 1% more fuel, or about a hundred kilos per diverted flight.

The experimental system remains measured: the tests will take place during selected evenings and nights, at a rate of twenty to forty nights per winter, on a corridor that should see about 10,000 flights in total; 1 to 5% of them would be invited to deviate. The consortium brings together Google, the British Department for Transport, the Met Office, NATS, Contrails.org, Imperial College London — responsible for independently verifying the results — and the University of Cambridge.