Aircraft Trajectory Optimization for European Flights: Assessment of the trajectory variability considering a trade off between operating costs and climate impact
In order to reduce the climate impact induced by the aircraft industry, the variability between cost optimized and climate optimized flight trajectories was evaluated. This was done to establish how the climate impact reduction affects the operating costs and vice versa. To evaluate the climate impact of air traffic, a climate chemistry model was used to simulate the earth its atmosphere and sub models to study aircraft trajectories. This study considered 85 flights spread out over the European airspace, analyzed for six months, including realistic weather systems throughout the entire analysis spectrum. Cost and climate optimized trajectories were compared for flight altitude, horizontal flight paths, emissions and operating costs. The presence of a seasonal effect was examined which marks the difference between a winter and a summer season, and four different flight directions were considered that showed the effect of the wind speed and direction on the flight properties.