Etihad Airways signs multi-year commercial production contract with Satavia

The agreement will expand the scope for Satavia technology to prevent warming aircraft contrails in day-to-day commercial aviation, while also enabling collaboration on the generation of future carbon credits.

Aircraft-generated condensation trails, or contrails, cause surface warming responsible for up to two-thirds of aviation’s climate impact, significantly outweighing direct CO2 emissions from aircraft engines. Satavia’s contrail management platform, DECISIONX:NETZERO, optimises commercial flight plans for greener operations, implementing small routing changes on a minority of flights to avoid the formation of persistent warming contrails. 

Mariam Al Qubaisi, Head of Sustainability and Excellence, Etihad Airways said: “Our collaboration with Satavia illustrates the possibility of credible sustainability advances in day-to-day commercial operations.

“In 2022 alone, Satavia technology has enabled us to eliminate thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent climate impact. We are delighted to sign this pioneering contract with Satavia at WFES, signalling our intent to tackle aviation’s non-CO2 impacts with cutting-edge science and ground-breaking technical innovation.”

In addition to enabling contrail management in day-to-day flight operations, SATAVIA conducts climate impact analysis for conversion into future carbon credits to be shared with Etihad. 

Dr Adam Durant, Satavia CEO and Founder, said: “By implementing minimal changes to a small percentage of flights, eco-conscious operators like Etihad can eliminate most of their non-CO2 climate footprint with little to no impact on day-to-day operations and on shorter timescales than other green aviation interventions.

“By implementing contrail management across their flight schedules, Etihad will once again blaze a trail for sustainable flight operations.”