On the Impact of Wind Conditions in Short-Range Flight Trajectories

This paper investigates the effect of realistic wind conditions on the fuel emitted during flight trajectories carried out in Europe and the surrounding areas. As global warming concerns grow, the aviation sector must minimize fuel consumption to align with zero-emission goals. Given the limited availability of aircraft and engine models, access to the EUROCONTROL database provides a valuable opportunity for analysis. This study integrates EUROCONTROL data with an open-source trajectory optimization framework, incorporating wind data from the Copernicus Climate Data Store ERA5 to refine trajectory modeling. The data analysis approach was performed using Python and R, focusing on three representative cases: (<tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$i$</tex>) assessing the impact of wind on CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> emissions over a one-month dataset by comparing simplified and wind-optimized trajectories; (ii) analyzing the effect of wind direction on a round-trip flight to determine whether headwinds or tailwinds yield greater efficiency, compared to actual flight data; and (iii) evaluating how wind strength influences lateral and altitude trajectories, identifying deviations between simulated and operated flight paths. Results indicate a slight increase in CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> emissions when wind effects are incorporated, likely due to variations in flight time caused by wind direction. Moreover, wind strength significantly affects trajectory deviations, highlighting the need for further investigation into refining simulation models to better align with realistic operations.