June 2011 Archives

Lufthansa must be feeling a bit miffed at having been pipped to the post by KLM for the title of first airline to operate a commercial scheduled flight powered by alternative fuel.

Lufthansa had originally planned to begin a six-month trial in April operating its Frankfurt-Hamburg route using an Airbus A321 with one of its engines running on a 50/50 blend of biofuel derived from vegetable oil and traditional kerosene.

However, it was forced to postpone this as it waited for certifying body ASTM International to approve the use of hydrotreated renewable jet (HRJ) fuel in commercial aviation.

Preliminary approval has been given by ASTM but it has yet to be finalised.

Despite this, KLM managed to secure permission from the Dutch transport ministry to operate a one-off flight today between Amsterdam and Paris using a 50/50 blend of kerosene and biofuel derived from cooking oil.

It will have to wait for full ASTM approval to begin its planned September flights though.

For more detail on the blend, where it's coming from, how it's getting there, how much it costs and what the CO2 impact will be, see my earlier story.

Well done to KLM for getting in first. There's so much happening on the biofuel front at the moment that it's hard to keep up.

While the rain continues to stop play for Solar Impulse in Paris, I've been on board the Boeing 747-8 Freighter that flew from Seattle to Le Bourget powered partly by camelina-derived biofuel.

I chatted to one of the landmark flight's pilots, Capt Nick Braun, who described the flight as a "non-event".

I was hoping for a more exciting quote but I guess the fact that the flight went like any other flight is a good thing. Still though, a bit of enthusiasm wouldn't have gone amiss.

Before this I spent some time with algae biofuel producer Sapphire Energy, which aims to produce commercial levels of sustainable jet fuel by 2018.

They've got lots of US government backing and bags of enthusiasm, so hopefully this prediction will ring truer than the more cynical "algae fuels are at least 10 years away" line that you hear from other quarters.

All in all it's been a pretty green day, including my bright green dress, which has prompted jokes from my colleagues that I've come to the show dressed as algae. Always nice to be told that you resemble a big lump of green slime. 

We've had constant downpours at the Paris air show, which have so far well and truly put a dampener on Solar Impulse's plan to carry out daily flying displays with its sun-powered prototype.

I caught up with Solar Impulse co-founder and round-the-world balloonist Bertrand Piccard to find out if he expects the weather to improve enough for the aircraft to fly (video of the interview coming soon to Flightglobal).

He said it's very unlikely it'll fly on Tuesday or Wednesday but it might be able to take to the sky towards the end of the week, provided the sun puts his hat on.

I also asked if it ever got boring flying for up to 24 hours in a small cockpit all by yourself (not one of my most intelligent questions, I know, but I was curious. I held back on asking how calls of nature were answered).

His answer: "When you work and live for a project, it's everything but boring." So there you go.

Finders crossed the weather improves - not just for Solar Impulse but for all of us here who keep getting drenched every time we leave the confines of the Flightglobal chalet!

After being forced to abort its first attempted flight from Brussels to Paris Le Bourget, Solar Impulse has cheated a bit on the second by using electricity rather than the sun to complete the charging of its prototype aircraft's batteries ahead of take-off.

For the full story on the latest attempt to get to Le Bourget in time for #PAS11, see here. The article includes live video of the latest attempt to fly to Paris on solar power.

Rather than risking cloudy weather conditions once again thwarting the mission by preventing the sun from charging up the aircraft's batteries, Solar Impulse used electricity to provide the remaining 40% of battery power that hadn't come from the sun before the prototype took off in the early hours of this morning.

The aircraft is due to land at Le Bourget later this evening. If that happens, watch out for it at the Paris air show where it will hopefully carry out some flight displays without relying on electricity. 

Just heard from my pal Rich Altman at the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) that certifying body ASTM International is about to approve hydrotreated renewable jet fuel for use in aviation.

After several false starts (approval was expected to happen in December) it now looks as though the green light could be given just in time to allow flights operating on a biofuel blend to take part in this year's Paris air show.

Biofuels are going to play a big part in #PAS11 and plans have been put in place to operate flights partially-powered by alternative fuels during the show - the organisers have just been waiting with their fingers crossed for this approval to come through in time.

This is exciting stuff. Watch this space for continued coverage during the air show.

With the compulsory inclusion of airlines in Europe's emissions trading scheme now less than six months away, hackles are predictably being raised all over the place.

We touched on it in an article in the latest issue of Flight International, with Air Transport Action Group's Paul Steele predicting more and more international opposition throughout the remainder of this year.

And here's IATA's Giovanni Bisignani's take.

China has reportedly threatened to boycott Airbus aircraft, although this has been officially denied to Flightglobal. It is, nevertheless, planning legal action against what it sees as the unfair inclusion of its carriers in the European scheme.

This reported boycott threat appears to have prompted Airbus boss Tom Enders to throw his hat into the ring and write a letter to EC climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard, warning of a potential trade war if Europe ploughs ahead with ETS.

And in response to this, Jos Dings, director of Brussels-based Transport & Environment has written a letter to the Financial Times accusing Airbus and the airline industry of "refusing to look its future in the face".

So it's all getting a bit heated, really. And Europe is showing no signs of backing down.

I'm just going to sit back, watch the fireworks and report on them.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting SAS Group environmental director Lars Andersen Resare for coffee in Mayfair.

We talked about lots of things, including SAS' aim to enter into some kind of agreement with a biofuel supplier ("We're looking at a couple of suppliers," said Resare, declining to elaborate).

I asked him why SAS was still flying around in gas-guzzling old MD-80s if it was so concerned about the environment, and he talked about the carrier's fleet renewal plan.

Here's what he had to say about the A320neo versus whatever Boeing has up its sleeve in terms of a narrowbody replacement. The story is on our premium channels but if you read this blog you get it pasted below for free!

SAS leans towards A320neo but keeps close eye on Boeing
Kerry Reals, London (02Jun11, 14:23 GMT, 198 words)

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news