Changing flight routes may reduce climate impact, says study

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New Delhi: A new research says that altering flight routes may reduce climate impact by up to 10 percent.

The study by researchers at by University of Reading in the UK shows airlines could make a large positive impact on climate change by altering flight routes to avoid areas where emissions have the largest impact.

The changes would be comparatively small - resulting in only around a one per cent increase in operating costs.

"Climate-friendly routing of aircraft has an exciting potential to decrease the climate impact of aviation, without the need for costly redesign of aircraft, their engines, and airports," said Professor Keith Shine from Reading's Meteorology Department.

"With more targeted research, it could become a reality in the next 10 years," said Shine.

"Around 5 per cent of man-made climate change is caused by global aviation, and this number is expected to rise. However, this impact could be reduced if flights were routed to avoid regions where emissions have the largest impact," said Volker Grewe, Professor at the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.

"Aviation is different from many other sectors, since its climate impact is largely caused by non-CO2 effects, such as contrails and ozone formation. These non-CO2 effects vary regionally, and, by taking advantage of that, a reduction of aviation's climate impact is feasible.

"Our study looked at how feasible of such a routing strategy is. We took into account a representative set of weather situations for winter and summer, as well as safety issues, and optimised all trans-Atlantic air traffic on those days," said Grewe.

(With Agency inputs)