British airline Virgin Atlantic will operate a transatlantic flight for the first time on Tuesday that will be powered entirely by so-called sustainable fuels, even if environmental organizations describe the process as “greenwashing.”
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British airline Virgin Atlantic on Tuesday operated its first transatlantic flight powered entirely by so-called sustainable fuels, in what environmental groups are calling a “greenwashing” move.
According to the New York airport website, the plane took off from London’s Heathrow Airport at around 11:50 a.m. GMT and landed at JFK in New York at 7:05 p.m. GMT.
It is the first long-haul aircraft from a commercial airline to “run on 100% sustainable fuels in both engines,” according to a Virgin press release.
However, the company states that it is not a commercial flight, meaning that passengers have not paid for a ticket and no cargo is being loaded.
British billionaire Richard Branson, the company’s founder, said he was “very proud to be on board” the flight, along with the teams “who have been working together to chart the path to decarbonizing long-haul aviation,” according to Virgin Atlantic .
“Today’s historic flight (…) shows how we can both decarbonize transport and enable passengers to continue to fly when and where they want,” said British Transport Minister Mark Harper, also quoted in the press release.
Made from waste oils, wood scraps or algae, sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) can be used in addition to kerosene (up to 50%) in current aircraft. They are considered the most important lever for decarbonizing the sector in the coming decades, but their production is still in its infancy and is very expensive.
Additionally, they are used in internal combustion engines that continue to produce CO2, with decarbonization occurring further upstream by reusing plant materials rather than extracting hydrocarbons.
The flight took place on a Boeing 787 equipped with Rolls-Royce engines and operated only on this fuel.
“Technological dead end”
The British government announced last December that it would support “up to £1 million” for this project, led by the airline in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, American aircraft manufacturer Boeing, British engine maker Rolls-Royce and giant BP Hydrocarbons.
The environmental association Stay Grounded described the process as “facade greening” in a press release on Monday.
“It is no coincidence that this flight takes place two days before the start of COP28 in Dubai,” says Stay Grounded. “While the world’s attention is focused on one flight, there are 100,000 using fossil fuels every day. Substitutes are just a drop in the ocean of hydrocarbons.
Finlay Asher, an aerospace engineer who worked for Rolls Royce, is quoted by Stay Grounded as saying that CDA technology, known as SAF in English, is a “technological dead end” because it cannot be developed at sufficient scale to make a difference.
“The waste used as raw material for this flight’s biokerosene is not available in sufficient quantities to have a significant impact on aviation emissions,” added Dr. Doug Parr, a scientist at Greenpeace, told AFP. UK.
“In addition, producing CO2 from direct air capture and green hydrogen from electrolysis, both of which are used to produce e-kerosene, is very expensive. (…) The only effective way to tackle aviation emissions in the short term is to regulate demand, and any suggestion to the contrary is simply utopian,” he added.