The Allplane Podcast #142: how to prevent contrail formation, with Maxime Meijers (Estuaire)

Hi everyone and welcome to a new episode of the Allplane podcast, where we talk with the movers and shakers redefining the future of commercial aviation.

And before we dive into today's conversation, I would like to remind you, as always, that all previous episodes of this podcast, along with many other interesting stories about innovation and sustainability in aviation, are all available on the Allplane website at allplane.tvall.com. And I would also like to invite you to subscribe to our newsletter, which focuses on sustainability in the aviation industry.

You can find the subscription link right on our website.

And now it's time for today's episode.

Today on the pod, we're going to talk about contrails.

And no, we are not going to promote any silly conspiracy theories that are out there.

In fact, we're going to talk about how contrails have actually a real effect on climate.

and also about what the airline industry can do about it right now without having to wait for any new exotic technologies with the tools that are available.

Our guest is Maxime Meyers, a French entrepreneur and aerospace engineer, founder of Estuaire, a technology company based in Toulouse in the south of France and one of Europe's aerospace hubs that basically uses data to predict the likelihood of control formation on the flight path of an aircraft.

basically provides actionable recommendations for the airline to try to prevent the formation of those contrails.

Maxim will provide a more detailed account of how they do it.

But basically, the team at S2 Air has come up with a technological platform which combines operational and scientific data.

And then they advise the airline about how best to optimize the flight path of their aircraft.

Despite being a young startup, S2R is already working with some big names in the industry.

And in fact, just the day after we recorded this episode, Air France, which is one of the airlines experimenting with S2R system, released a report about the findings of using S2R system to avoid control formation.

What's more, the European Union has also included contrail mitigation in the latest revision of the ETS system, which provides the, let's say, the basic regulatory framework for aviation emissions in the European Union.

And this happened in the summer of 2026.

So this is a pretty hot topic.

And I would advise you to keep listening to learn more about what is going on with contrails and how Maxime and the team at S2R are tackling this matter.

Hi everyone and welcome to a new episode of the Allplane podcast, where we talk with the movers and shakers redefining the future of commercial aviation.

And before we dive into today's conversation, I would like to remind you, as always, that all previous episodes of this podcast, along with many other interesting stories about innovation and sustainability in aviation, are all available on the Allplane website at allplane.tvall.com. And I would also like to invite you to subscribe to our newsletter, which focuses on sustainability in the aviation industry.

You can find the subscription link right on our website.

And now it's time for today's episode.

Today on the pod, we're going to talk about contrails.

And no, we are not going to promote any silly conspiracy theories that are out there.

In fact, we're going to talk about how contrails have actually a real effect on climate.

and also about what the airline industry can do about it right now without having to wait for any new exotic technologies with the tools that are available.

Our guest is Maxime Meyers, a French entrepreneur and aerospace engineer, founder of Estuaire, a technology company based in Toulouse in the south of France and one of Europe's aerospace hubs that basically uses data to predict the likelihood of control formation on the flight path of an aircraft.

basically provides actionable recommendations for the airline to try to prevent the formation of those contrails.

Maxim will provide a more detailed account of how they do it.

But basically, the team at S2 Air has come up with a technological platform which combines operational and scientific data.

And then they advise the airline about how best to optimize the flight path of their aircraft.

Despite being a young startup, S2R is already working with some big names in the industry.

And in fact, just the day after we recorded this episode, Air France, which is one of the airlines experimenting with S2R system, released a report about the findings of using S2R system to avoid control formation.

What's more, the European Union has also included contrail mitigation in the latest revision of the ETS system, which provides the, let's say, the basic regulatory framework for aviation emissions in the European Union.

And this happened in the summer of 2026.

So this is a pretty hot topic.

And I would advise you to keep listening to learn more about what is going on with contrails and how Maxime and the team at S2R are tackling this matter.