CAMBRIDGE-BASED technology company Satavia was involved in a recent Etihad Airways flight from London to Abu Dhabi that explored how to avoid producing contrails. Satavia uses artificial intelligence, data analytics and atmospheric and climate science to, it says, "make aviation smarter and greener". Etihad's Boeing 787 Greenliner, a testbed for sustainability improvements, was fitted with Satavia's technology to operate Flight EY20 between the two hubs on October 23, 2021. The aim was to identify areas in the atmosphere where harmful contrails were likely to form, enabling the route to be optimised to minimise contrail formation. Etihad said: "Based on the original and adjusted flight plan, the strategy avoided the production of approximately 64 tonnes of carbon dioxide [CO2] emissions, with a fuel penalty of only 100kg, or 0.48 tonnes of CO2."
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