PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

Sec. Space Physics

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspas.2025.1553076

This article is part of the Research TopicVariability in the Solar Wind and its Impact on the Coupled Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere SystemView all 14 articles

Space Weather Impacts on Aviation: Bridging Scientific Understanding and Operational Implications

Provisionally accepted
Yi WangYi Wang1*Ruidi LuoRuidi Luo1Feng Si WeiFeng Si Wei1Xueshang FengXueshang Feng1Bo Yi WangBo Yi Wang1Pingbing ZuoPingbing Zuo1Chaowei JiangChaowei Jiang1Xiaojun XuXiaojun Xu2Zilu ZhouZilu Zhou2
  • 1Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China
  • 2Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macao, Macao, SAR China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Select one of your emails

You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:

Notify me on publication

Please enter your email address:

If you already have an account, please login

You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here

Space weather, long considered a peripheral concern for aviation, is increasingly recognized as a significant systemic factor influencing global flight operations. While its impact on communication, navigation, and power systems is well-documented, the broader contribution of space weather to flight delays and cancellations has been historically underestimated, with attention largely confined to polar route disruptions.This perspective calls for a paradigm shift, highlighting the systemic effects of space weather on flight delays and cancellations worldwide and stressing the urgent need to integrate space weather considerations into aviation research, operational frameworks, and strategic planning. Building on recent analyses of U.S. airline data (2024) and prior investigations of Chinese hub airports (2015-2019), we reveal how understanding these impacts can transform aviation operations, improving efficiency and resilience in an interconnected global network. By moving beyond a traditionally siloed approach, this perspective uncovers a previously underappreciated global challenge with profound implications for the future of air travel. We advocate for interdisciplinary collaboration, advanced real-time monitoring, and predictive analytics to enhance aviation resilience and operational efficiency amidst escalating space weather activity.

Keywords: Space weather, Aviation, Flight delays, Flight cancellation, Solar Storm

Received: 30 Dec 2024; Accepted: 26 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Luo, Wei, Feng, Wang, Zuo, Jiang, Xu and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Yi Wang, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material