The latest impact of climate change? Flight delays: Changes to the jet stream will cause planes to spend longer in the air and suffer more turbulence

- Scientist said accelerating jet stream will slow down westbound flights
- It will cut eastbound transatlantic flights to around 5 hours 20 mins
- But the return journey will be longer, effectively cancelling each other out
- Results were calculated assuming carbon dioxide levels will double 

By Sarah Griffiths for MailOnline | 10 February 2016

If you frequently fly between the US and Europe, journeys could soon take much longer - and be bumpier - thanks to climate change.

This is the prediction of a British scientist who claims that climate change is likely to accelerate the jet stream, a high-altitude wind blowing across the Atlantic.

This will slow down westbound flights, from the UK to New York, for example, while travellers heading eastbound will enjoy slightly shorter flights for the same reason.

Paul Williams, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Reading, said: 'The aviation industry is facing pressure to reduce its environmental impacts, but this study shows a new way in which aviation is itself susceptible to the effects of climate change.

'The bad news for passengers is that westbound flights will be battling against stronger headwinds.

'The good news is that eastbound flights will be boosted by stronger tailwinds, but not enough to compensate for the longer westbound journeys.

'The net result is that round trip journeys will significantly lengthen.

'This effect will increase the fuel costs to airlines, potentially raising ticket prices, and it will worsen the environmental impacts of aviation.'

Overall, Dr Williams calculates that transatlantic aircraft will spend an extra 2,000 hours in the air every year, adding millions of dollars to airline fuel costs and increasing the risk of delays.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, looked at the effects of doubling the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which will occur within the next few decades unless emissions are cut quickly.

The average jet-stream winds along the flight route between London's Heathrow airport and New York's John F. Kennedy International airport are predicted to become 15 per cent faster in winter, increasing from 48 to 55 mph (77 to 89 km/h). 

There will also be similar increases in the other seasons.

As a result, London-bound flights will become twice as likely to take under 5 hours and 20 minutes, implying that record-breaking crossing times will occur with increasing frequency in future.

For comparison, the current non-Concorde record for a transatlantic crossing from New York to London stands at five hours and sixteen minutes.

On the other hand, New York-bound flights will become twice as likely to take more than seven hours, suggesting delayed arrivals will become increasingly common.

Due to the extra time spent in the air, transatlantic flights will burn an extra $22 million (£15 million) worth of fuel annually. 

These flights will emit an extra 154 million lbs (70 million kilos) of carbon dioxide, which is the equivalent to the annual emissions of 7,100 British homes. And this might only be the tip of the iceberg.

'The jet stream encircles the globe, and there is one in the southern hemisphere too,' Dr Williams said.

'It is possible that flights elsewhere in the world will also suffer from a similar jet stream effect.

Dr Williams fed 'atmospheric wind fields' fields generated from climate model simulations into an algorithm of the type used operationally by flight planners to reach his conclusions.

A previous University of Reading study, also led by Dr Williams, found that clear-air turbulence will become stronger and more frequent as a result of global warming.