Aircraft powered by landfill waste and cooking oil could become a regular feature of the airline industry in future, it is to be claimed today.
But governments must help fund more research into alternative fuels, the head of British Airways’ parent company International Airlines Group is due to say.
Chief executive Willie Walsh will urge governments to offer the same incentives to the airline industry as they do to road transport companies to develop more environmentally sustainable sources of fuel., The Telegraph reported.
BA is working with a company called Solena which is building a facility in Essex to convert landfill waste into jet fuel.
Finnair is to use fuel developed from recycled cooking oil to power a flight between Helsinki and New York, ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Summit in the US.
Walsh is expected to tell leaders at the summit in New York that airlines are seeking to reduce carbon emissions but need more support from governments if there is to be widespread change across the industry.
IAG argues that other transport industries are incentivised through fuel credit schemes.
“We are not asking for special treatment, just parity with other sectors,” Walsh will say. “Many countries have introduced such programmes for road transport – why not aviation?”
Finnair will fly an Airbus A330 using a biofuel that has been partly made from cooking oils recycled from restaurants. The airline insists that biofuel is a “proven and exhaustively tested technology”. The Finnish national airline flew its first flight with biofuel in 2011.