Weekly transatlantic flights powered entirely by old-cooking-oil-derived biofuels will soon be offered by the Dutch airline KLM. This is an important milestone in the growing market for “greener” forms of air travel. The option is now there, for those who travel between New York and Amsterdam regularly, to significantly cut down on the carbon emissions that their travel causes.
KLM Airplane
Image Credit: Roman Sulla / Shutterstock.com
The new fuel will be provided by the aviation biofuel specialist SkyNRG. The project has received significant support from a variety of KLM’s partners. “This is the result of a joint effort and expanded cooperation between KLM, Schiphol Group, Delta Air Lines, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and by contributions of KLM’s partners in the Corporate BioFuel Program,” KLM states.
The new entirely biofuel-powered weekly flights are a continuation of KLM’s current push to invest in, and develop, lower carbon fuels. KLM also recently launched a service that gives its large corporate accounts the option of choosing the proportion of their flights that use biofuels, allowing these companies to cut down on their carbon emissions in this way. This includes companies such as Accenture, Heineken, Nike, and Philips.
Most major airlines are currently investing heavily in a variety of different biofuel technologies, especially biofuels made from algae and waste products.
The investment in biofuels is largely as a result of customer demand and the European Union’s recent decision to place a levy on airlines’ carbon emissions, which is supposed to apply to all flights entering or leaving from Europe, but has been delayed a bit due to pressure from non-EU countries such as the US and China.
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