4AIR and Victor 2025 Annual Contrails Report shows business aviation impacts

In the UK, in partnership with 4AIR, Victor announced the results of its inaugural 2025 Annual Contrails Report, further verifying the impact of contrails on global warming, as both organisations continue to raise awareness of the CO2 and non-CO2 impact of business aviation on climate change and urge all commercial airlines to immediately publish their own transparent contrail analysis reports.

Contrails are long thin lines of cloud, usually seen behind an aircraft and are a product of aircraft engine emissions interacting with the right combination of temperature and humidity in the upper atmosphere. Depending on the location and time of day, long-lasting or “big-hit” contrails can have an outsized warming impact, trapping and absorbing heat that otherwise would radiate back into space. Research conducted by the European Commission indicates that contrails and non-CO₂ emissions are currently responsible for about twice as much warming as the CO2 emitted by aviation. Recent estimates from the University of Cambridge Aviation Impact Accelerator, show that contrails cause about the same amount of warming each year as all the CO₂ emitted by all flights from 1945 to 2018.

Toby Edwards, co-CEO at Victor stated: “One misconception is that private jets fly above contrail regions, our report proves this isn’t always the case.  We want our private jet clients to have the option to avoid contrail formation by choosing progressive operators that are proactively making small adjustments to their flight paths to avoid contrail-forming regions, thereby lowering their environmental impact. Operators that are working on contrail avoidance using smart flight management software, which is already readily available, would be transparently recommended to clients. Such an offering would be a natural extension to our existing product, which includes aircraft estimate fuel-burn data and Neste sustainable aviation fuel.”