Air France uses cooking oil to fly to Canada

Air France-KLM flew a biofuel-powered Airbus A350 from Paris to Montreal, demonstrating the airline’s readiness to adopt low-emissions fuel despite deep industry divisions over the pace of its adoption. Air France flight 342 took off from Charles de Gaulle airport on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) with a 16 per cent mix of sustainable aviation fuel in its fuel tanks, produced in France by Total from used cooking oil. The flight signalled a “shared ambition to decarbonise air transportation and to develop a SAF supply chain in France”, the companies said in a joint statement with airport operator ADP . Jet fuel produced from biomass or synthetically from renewable power has the potential to slash carbon emissions, albeit at a heavy cost by comparison to the price of kerosene. Starting next year, flights departing from France will be required to use 1% sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, ahead of EU goals to reach 2% by 2025 and 5% by 2030 under the bloc’s Green Deal policy. But traditional network airlines have sought to exempt long-haul flights, arguing that a Europe-only SAF requirement could expose them to unfair foreign competition.<br/>