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It's an optimization problem which could be solved if impact of contrails could be estimated. Making a long detour unlikely is good choice but if a small route / altitude changes could help - why not?

That’s not deep insight stuff. I promise you these people are more keenly aware of what constitutes an undesirable solution than that.

From TFA:

> Rather than dramatically changing the route of a flight, the trial will mostly involve changing an aircraft's altitude by around 2,000ft.

What if there are more headwinds at that height which require increased fuel use?

If you have any experience with the majority of airlines, you can be sure they are not planning to spend any significant amount of extra fuel on this problem. I am not a pilot, but I assume once you are at cruising altitude, small altitude changes are a rounding error

I mean what if there’s a mountain at that height? Will they just fly into it?