Operational Live-Trial for Contrail Prevention at the Maastricht Upper Area Control during 2021 – Can persistent contrails be avoided in the real world?

During the year 2021 the EUROCONTROL Maastricht Upper Area Control (MUAC) center, in partnership with the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), conducted an operational live trial to prevent contrails. Objective was to demonstrate that contrail prevention is operationally feasible and can be proven. The operational concept was to avoid ice super-saturated atmospheric regions and layers by deviating flights vertically, applying level clearances only. Deviations of 2000 feet in both directions were admitted minimizing additional fuel burn and hence additional CO2 emission. The decision criterion used numerical weather predictions for ice supersaturation and persistent contrail. Observations from geo-stationary satellites and statistical analysis proved that contrails can be avoided. The experiment is the first operational trial of its kind where an entire airspace is used over a longer time. Based on the findings from the trial we investigate recommendations for future exploration.