Renewable fuel aviation group to 'make flights sustainable'

Tuesday 30 September 2008

Airline & Airport Updates

A group of European carriers are to work together to develop sustainable aviation fuel for use across their routes.

The collection of airlines comprises some of Europe's largest charter operators, including Air France, SAS Scandinavian and Virgin Atlantic.

They hope that will be able to cut down carbon emissions on their flights by developing commercial renewable fuels that can be used by planes across short-haul and long-haul routes.

The carriers also believe that switching to renewables for flights will reduce their exposure to the rising fuel prices.

A number of other organisations have also joined up to the group, including Boeing and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Liz Barratt-Brown, senior attorney at the NRDC, said: "If done right, sustainable biofuels could lower the airlines' carbon footprint at a time when all industries need to be moving away from fuels with higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions, especially high carbon tar sands and liquid coal."

Virgin Atlantic has long been an advocate of renewable fuel use in the aviation industry, having launched a flight to Amsterdam in February using 25 per cent biofuel.