Why American Paused a Climate Trial When Fuel Prices Spiked

Skift Take

Avoiding the creation of planet-warming contrails is considered one of the cheapest ways to cut aviation’s impact on the environment — but even marginal costs mount when jet fuel prices spike.

When fuel prices spiked this spring, airlines moved to cut costs, and at American Airlines, one of the targets was a contrail-avoidance trial that had only just begun the month prior. The issue: contrails themselves warm the planet, but avoiding them can mean burning more fuel.

The airline didn't want to send pilots and dispatchers conflicting instructions, where they were told to conserve fuel because of volatile prices while also potentially burning more fuel, when needed, to avoid the atmospheric conditions that create contrails.

“We are hoping to resume this fall, and our goal for the 2026 trial is to obtain a sample of sufficient size to allow us to more accurately measure the additional fuel burn,” said American spokesperson Chris D'Aloia, adding that resuming the trial depends on fuel prices normalizing.

American ran its first contrail trial in 2023 and in 2025 this work was expanded. Some 2,400 fli

Reporting originally appeared via Skift Travel News. Read the full source for additional context.