Greener flight paths for Eurocontrol
What if you could make flights greener without building new planes? That’s exactly what we did with Eurocontrol MUAC
Together, we built an AI-driven system that finds cleaner routes before takeoff—cutting CO₂, saving fuel, and making the sky just a bit smarter.
The Challenge: Greener flights
Air Traffic Management (ATM)—the invisible system that decides who flies where and when—is packed with legacy processes. Flights often follow the same ‘historic’ routes, not because they’re best, but because that’s just how it’s always been done.
Enter Eurocontrol’s MUAC (Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre), managing some of Europe’s busiest airspace. They had a wild idea: what if we re-routed flights based on real-time data, not gut feeling? What if the greenest path was the one we actually took?
Machine learning meets military-grade precision
ECO-service—a tool that identifies greener routes before takeoff. Think of it as a Waze for the skies, powered by real-time data, AI and one crucial new role: the eco-operator.
Here’s how it works:
- Our model calculates eco-scores for every flight, based on potential emission savings.
- The eco-operator sees which flights can take a cleaner route—without breaking the rules or messing with safety.
- The new route gets pushed to the airline. They’re free to accept or decline. No pressure, just data.
There are too many variables for humans to juggle. But when we give people the right tools, they don’t just trust the data—they act on it.
Data Science Lead
Air traffic management could reduce aviation CO₂ by up to 10%. That’s not a side benefit. That’s a strategy.
EU Commissioner