Lufthansa to use biofuel on flights by 2012
traditional kerosene on commercial flights as carriers seek ways to cut soaring
fuel costs, its chief executive said.
of biofuel and kerosene within two years, Wolfgang Mayrhuber told reporters on
the sidelines of an event late on Saturday.
schedule by the end of this year.
emissions, which scientists say could cause global temperatures to rise, triggering
widespread disease, famine, flooding and drought.
which would be 15-20 percent of all CO2 permitted under a global agreement and
a nearly four-fold increase on current levels.
airline to test biofuel in a passenger airplane, filling one of four engines on
a Boeing 747 with biofuel for a 1.5 hour test flight.
2011.
largest carrier by merging with United Airlines parent UAL, had already used a
mix of biologically derived fuel and jet fuel on a test flight.
point. Instead, the carrier would wait until it could start using biofuel regularly
on some routes to gather reliable data over a longer period of time.
we will have some advantages in our costs for emissions trading,” Mayrhuber said
at the event, which celebrates 50 years of Boeing planes at Lufthansa.
from 2012, and the less traditional kerosene airlines use every year, the fewer
certificates they have to buy permitting them to pollute the air.
($201-470 million) once airlines join the scheme.
Take Action
wants to burn kerosene with agrofuels. At the end of two years of tests, up to
10% agrofuels are to be added to jet fuel. Lufthansa likes to speak about algae
– not a realistic option – and jatropha, which is linked to land-grabbing, hunger
and deforestation. Please call on Lufthansa to drop their agrofuel plans. (Start:
21.05.2010)”