Air France: The airline Air France carried out, this Tuesday (18), the first intercontinental flight that, as fuel, used cooking oil – no, you didn’t read it wrong. The initiative, somewhat unusual, was made possible through a partnership with the company Airbus, as well as the groups ADP and Total oil.
Leaving Paris, France, towards Montreal, a city in Canada, the Airbus A350 aircraft was powered by a fuel with 16% oil for frying. The biofuel, produced by a refinery of the Total group, located in La Méde, in the southeast of the French capital, prevented the emission of 20 tons of carbon dioxide on the test flight.
Biofuel: greener and more expensive
The alternative is highly more ecological, but less economical. According to Air France calculations, this mixture generates an additional cost of 4 € (about R $ 25.80, in the conversion of the day) per passenger on the route performed. In order not to lose competitiveness, the company then intends to encourage the use of these biofuels for as many companies as possible.
French legislation will be a great ally to the plan, since it determines, from 2022, the use of biofuel at the rate of 1% on all flights that take off from the country. In three years, that number will rise to 2%, according to the law in force and, in 2030, it will reach 5%. The tendency, therefore, is for the practice to be gradually adopted by companies.
Airbus, however, intends to take a step forward, and is already studying strategies for using no less than 100% biofuels in flights “in the coming decades”.
