In this episode, we talk to Maxime Meijers and Nicolas Meijers, co-founders of Estuaire, who share insights into their innovative data platform that provides comprehensive climate impact assessments for the aviation industry.

Maxime and Nicolas share:

1. The development of Estuaire’s data platform, which fuses various data sources to provide granular and exhaustive climate impact modelling for individual flights.
2. The significant impact of non-CO2 emissions, particularly contrails, which can represent an additional 30% climate impact on top of CO2 emissions.
3. The importance of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in reducing both CO2 and non-CO2 emissions, and Estuaire’s approach to optimising SAF allocation for maximum climate benefit.
4. The surprising finding that only 2% of flights are responsible for 80% of aviation’s contrail warming effect, and how Estuaire’s technology helps identify these high-impact flights.
5. The potential for airlines to achieve significant climate savings through small changes in flight operations, such as slight altitude adjustments to avoid contrail-prone areas.

Throughout the conversation, Maxime and Nicolas emphasise the unique transparency of the aviation sector and how Estuaire leverages this data to drive actionable insights for airlines, airports, and other stakeholders in the aviation ecosystem. Looking to the future, they discuss their ambitious goal of having 10 major airlines successfully implement contrail mitigation programs within the next year, showcasing the potential for rapid progress in sustainable aviation practices.

If you LOVED this episode, you’ll also love the conversation we had with Alejandra Martín Frías, Head of Sustainability Research at FLIGHTKEYS, who shares insights into the company’s research on contrail avoidance and its potential impact on aviation sustainability. Check it out here. 

Learn more about the innovators who are navigating the industry’s challenges to make sustainable aviation a reality, in our new book ‘Sustainability in the Air’. Click here to learn more.

Feel free to reach out via email to podcast@simpliflying.com. For more content on sustainable aviation, visit our website green.simpliflying.com and join the movement. It’s about time.

Links & More:

Estuaire

Contrail Index - Estuaire 

ESTUAIRE raises €2.2M in seed round to reduce the climate impact of aviation - Safran 

How FLIGHTKEYS promises major climate gains at a minimal cost - SimpliFlying