EREA Best Paper Award for study on avoiding contrails

Researchers from the DLR Institute of Air Transport were awarded 3rd place in the EREA Best Paper Award at the EREA Annual Event 2025 in Brussels. The award recognised a scientific paper by Katrin Kölker, Zarah Lea Zengerling, Dr. Markus Kühlen, Klaus Lütjens, and Dr. Florian Linke, which examined the operational and network-wide effects of contrail avoidance in air transport through flight rescheduling.

Avoiding contrails – but systematically

The award-winning paper, titled “Assessing the impact of contrail avoidance through rescheduling on airline network flows: A case study of North Atlantic flights”, was published in 2024 in the journal Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. The study focuses on how shifting flight times to reduce contrail-induced climate effects affects complex airline networks. North Atlantic flights were analysed, demonstrating that targeted adjustments to departure times can significantly reduce climate-relevant contrail formation.

Comprehensive analysis of network effects

The researchers developed a detailed optimisation model for airline networks, which considers not only long-haul flights but also feeder services and connecting passengers. This allowed a systematic assessment of the wide-ranging consequences of schedule changes, including impacts on:

• Connectivity and network accessibility
• Fleet utilisation and rotation planning
• Robustness to disruptions
• Shifts in passenger demand

Various demand and adjustment scenarios were examined to show how airlines can partially offset negative effects through internal network responses.

Contribution to climate-compatible aviation

The results show that even moderate rescheduling of a small number of flights can significantly reduce climate-relevant contrails, while operational impacts remain manageable. The study therefore provides an important scientific contribution to understanding how operational measures can be used in the short term to reduce aviation’s climate impact.

EREA Best Paper Award

The Association of European Research Establishments in Aeronautics (EREA) is a network of leading European aviation research organisations, including the German Aerospace Center (DLR). EREA was founded in 1994 to strengthen European collaboration in research and innovation and to develop joint solutions to the growing challenges of an integrated European air transport system.

The EREA Best Paper Award annually recognises outstanding scientific publications in the field of aeronautics research. The authors of the three best papers are invited to the Annual Event in Brussels to present their work.