Finnair to fly across Atlantic using recycled cooking oil

KUALA LUMPUR: Finland’s Finnair will fly from Helsinki to New York on Tuesday where its Airbus A330 will be using environmentally sustainable biofuel.

It said on Monday the flight would coincide with the UN Climate Summit which would take place in New York on the same day. 

“Most of an airline’s environmental impact arises from aircraft emissions during flight, and switching to a more sustainable fuel source can reduce net carbon dioxide emissions by between 50% and 80%. 

“The biofuel mixture powering the flight to New York, provided by SkyNRG Nordic – a joint venture between SkyNRG and Statoil Aviation – is partly manufactured from cooking oil recycled from restaurants.

“This is an example of a biofuel alternative to ordinary jet fuel that significantly reduces net greenhouse gas emissions while also being sustainable in its own right,” it said. 

Finnair said the airline and its partners insisted on cultivating biofuel sources that neither compete with food production nor damage biodiversity. 

“Aviation biofuel is a proven and exhaustively tested technology – Finnair first flew with biofuel in 2011 – but at more than twice the price of conventionally produced jet fuel, it is not yet economically viable for any airline to operate with exclusively,” it said. 

This demonstration flight was made possible due to the cooperation with Airbus and SkyNRG Nordic.

Finnair’s vice president of sustainable development Kati Ihamäki said the UN Climate Summit is an important gathering to fight climate change, and we wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the climate benefits of more widespread adoption of environmentally sustainable biofuels in aviation. 

Finland’s Minister for International Development Pekka Haavisto pointed out as air traffic contributes 2% of all greenhouse gas emissions, it was very important to have this trial with the use of biofuels. 

“If the price of oil rises and biofuels become cheaper, there will hopefully be a day when we’ll be able to replace at least some of the fossil fuels with fuels made of renewable and waste material. I’m happy that Finnair is showing leadership in this development,” said Haavisto.

SkyNRG CEO Dirk Kronemeijer pointed out this flight would be a warm up for a large offensive from itsside with our partners Statoil Aviation, Neste Oil and many others to accelerate the local supply and production of sustainable and affordable jet fuel for the Nordic countries.