Today Finnair is set to break a world record as it launches a cooking oil-powered flight from Amsterdam to Helsinki – the world’s longest biofueled commercial flight to date. Commercial airlines have been jumping on board with biofuels lately – many have been making test flights in hopes of transitioning to alternative fuels in the near future.
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Today’s flight is the first in a series of four tests flights that Finnair is conducting to test the efficiency of biofuel. Like other airlines, Finnair will be testing flights with a combination of biofuel and conventional jet fuel, which will be used to power both of the SkyNRG aircraft’s engines. The biofuel portion used for these flights is made from recycled cooking oil from restaurants.
Other airlines have private investors that help financially support the use biofuel (which is currently expensive), but according to Finnair’s VP of Sustainable Development, Kati Ihamaki, Finnair is taking on the cost entirely themselves, as part of their commitment finding an ecologically and socially sustainable fuel source.
The flight will take off from Amsterdam at 18:50 local time, and land in Helsinki at 22:10. It is the company’s first biofueled flight, and they anticipate that it will go off without a hitch.
Airplane engine emissions have a significant impact on the environment, however biofuels can be derived from renewable and recycled sources and produce significantly less emissions. Should every airline adopt biofuel, the environmental effects of airplane emissions would be drastically reduced.
+ Finnair
