Virgin Atlantic jet making 1st transatlantic flight on low-carbon fuel | 24CA News
A Virgin Atlantic passenger jet flying from London to New York powered by 100 per cent sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF) took off Tuesday morning, because the aviation world seeks to showcase the potential of low-carbon choices to safe its future.
As the world decarbonizes, airways are banking on gasoline constructed from waste to cut back their emissions by as much as 70 per cent, enabling them to maintain working earlier than electric- and hydrogen-powered air journey turns into a actuality within the a long time to come back.
The flight, involving a Virgin Boeing 787 powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines, is the primary time a business airline has flown long-haul on 100 per cent SAF.
It follows a profitable transatlantic crossing by a Gulfstream G600 business jet utilizing the identical gasoline final week.
Virgin Atlantic’s billionaire founder Richard Branson, the airline’s chief govt Shai Weiss and British transport minister Mark Harper are among the many passengers on board.
The flight is scheduled to reach at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport at 2:40 p.m. ET.
No paying clients
There can be no paying passengers or cargo on board what Virgin has dubbed Flight100, which comes days earlier than the beginning of COP28 local weather talks in Dubai on Thursday.
SAF is already utilized in jet engines as a part of a mix with conventional kerosene, however after profitable floor checks, Virgin and its companions Rolls-Royce, Boeing, BP and others gained permission to fly utilizing solely SAF.
Aviation accounts for an estimated two to 3 per cent of worldwide carbon emissions. SAF is vital in lowering these emissions, however it’s expensive, at about three to 5 instances as a lot as common jet gasoline proper now, and accounts for lower than 0.1 per cent of complete world jet gasoline in use immediately.
The gasoline used to energy Tuesday’s flight is generally constructed from used cooking oil and waste animal fats combined with a small quantity of artificial fragrant kerosene constructed from waste corn, Virgin Atlantic mentioned.
Industry challenges
Many European airways — together with Virgin, IAG-owned British Airways and Air France — have mentioned they wish to be utilizing 10 per cent SAF by 2030, and the business’s aim of “net zero” emissions by 2050 depends on that share rising to 65 per cent.
Rolls-Royce’s CEO Tufan Erginbilgic mentioned SAF was the one answer to decarbonize business flights within the medium time period.
“I think on the big planes — I’m talking about commercial planes, if you like — really, the next 15-20 years’ solution is genuinely SAF. We are making our engines compatible with SAF, so that transformation actually takes place,” he mentioned on Tuesday after asserting his technique for Rolls-Royce.
Yet the 2030 goal seems difficult given SAF’s small volumes and its excessive value.
In October, the pinnacle of IAG warned that there was a greater than 90 per cent danger the business wouldn’t meet the European Union mandate for SAF availability in 2025.
‘Nowhere shut’
Environmental advocacy group Stay Grounded known as Tuesday’s flight “a greenwashing distraction.”
“[Fuel substitutes] are nowhere close to being scalable in the necessary time frame to avoid climate collapse. What is urgently needed is to reduce the burning of fossil jet fuels, which means reducing flights wherever possible,” mentioned Magdalena Heuwieser, who represents the community.
The aviation business hopes that the Virgin Atlantic flight will spotlight to governments the necessity for them to supply monetary assist to make SAF extra available.
Virgin mentioned the engines on the flight can be drained of SAF and examined earlier than the airplane returns to service utilizing common gasoline.
