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.
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