Flag carrier launches green test period

Posted 16/07/2011

Lufthansa launched a six-month trial on Friday using biofuel on all regular scheduled flights.

The airline will operate an Airbus A321 on the Hamburg-Frankfurt-Hamburg route four times daily, with one of its engines running on a 50/50 mix of regular fuel and biosynthetic kerosene.

The biofuel for jet engines has been approved by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).

As biokerosene has similar properties to those of conventional kerosene, it can be used for all aircraft types and doesn’t need to be modified to the aircraft or its engines.

Today’s first flight, operating under flight number LH 013, took off today from Hamburg at 11.15 bound for Frankfurt. During the test run period, the use of biofuel will reduce CO2 emissions by up to 1,500 tonnes.

Chairman and CEO of the Lufthansa Group Christoph Franz said: “Lufthansa is the first airline worldwide to use biofuel in scheduled daily flight operations. We are thus continuing to steadily implement our proven and successful strategy for sustainability.”

Franz warned that fossil raw materials are finite and added that it was important that the airline industry must also reduce CO2 emissions.

He said the point of the trial was to examine the effects of biofuel on the maintenance and lifespan of aircraft engines.

Originally published 16 Jul 2011 at: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/398/f/5923/s/16b23db8/l/0L0Stravelmole0N0Cstories0C11485310Bphp0Dmpnlog0F1/story01.htm