Biofuel Flights by Air France and Thomson

These days across Europe we see more and more commercial flights using biofuel. Even being just test flights, far away from commercial daily usage, these flights are a huge step forward in terms of a greener, more eco friendly future of aviation. Air France and Airbus have completed the world’s greenest commercial flight by combining the latest bio fuel and air traffic management technologies. The flight from Toulouse-Blagnac to Paris-Orly using an Airbus A321 has been able to demonstrate the cutting in half of CO2 emitted compared to a regular flight.

The commercial flight combined for the first time the use of bio-fuels (50 per cent in each engine), optimised air traffic management (ATM) and efficient Continuous Descent Approach (CDA) to minimise CO2 emissions. Combining these technologies helped half the overall CO2 emissions to 54 grams per passenger and kilometre. This is equivalent to a fuel efficiency of 2.2 litres of fuel per passenger and 100 Kilometres.
Bio-fuel is one solution for reducing overall CO2 emissions. Airbus’ alternative fuel strategy is to speed up its commercialisation through sustainable bio-fuel value chains. Thanks to several test flights and collaboration with the fuels standards bodies (ASTM and DefStan), today the use of 50 per cent bio-fuel blends are authorised in commercial flights.

A more efficient ATM system could also help reduce the amount of fuel burned by aircraft and therefore the CO2 emitted. Airbus strongly supports the streamlining of ATM and has launched a new subsidiary company, called “Airbus ProSky”, dedicated to the development and support of modern air traffic management (ATM) systems to achieve the highest operational efficiencies with more direct routings resulting in around 10 percent less aircraft fuel consumption, as well as significant reductions in CO2 and noise emissions. CDA is becoming more widespread as a way to reduce fuel burn. During a CDA procedure, the aircraft descends continuously, avoiding level flight prior to the final approach and requires significantly less engine thrust and therefore less fuel burn.

Just a few days ago, British carrier Thomson Airways became the first UK airline to fly customers on sustainable biofuel when they operated a Boeing 757-200 on a flight from Birmingham to Arrecife. The sustainable biofuel used by Thomson Airways is supplied by Dutch-based company SkyNRG, who is advised by an independent Sustainability Board consisting of two leading NGOs and a leading Government scientific institute. Platinum Fuels have been chosen as the fuel handler to fuel the aircraft.

Currently Thomson has scheduled daily operations using biofuel for early 2012. As sustainable biofuels become more commercially viable, Thomson Airways plans to expand its use of sustainable biofuels across its fleet.

Biofuel Infografic – provided by Thomson Airways: