Contrail-free flying could help the climate
Science & technology | Global warming and aviation
Contrail-free flying could help the climate
A trial over the Atlantic aims to show how
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Photograph: Getty Images
Aug 19th 2026|7 min read
The 40m scheduled passenger flights which took place in 2019 added up to about 61bn kilometres of travel—exceeding the distance from Earth to the Sun every day of the year. More than 40% of those flights left contrails behind them for at least some of the journey as water vapour in the exhaust from their engines froze into tiny particles of ice.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Bluer cooler skies”
From the August 22nd 2026 edition
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