Delta Air Lines has made its long-awaited debut into the New Zealand market. DL65 arrived into Auckland Airport from Los Angeles on Monday morning, with the Airbus A350-900 landing just after 8am. The airline will fly daily during summer, and will travel three times a week from April to October. A host of new services from the US will operate into New Zealand in the coming weeks. Also arriving on Monday into Auckland was United Airlines’ new seasonal flight from Los Angeles. The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner service is scheduled to run three times a week initially and increase to four times a week in December. United will also be launching a new Christchurch-San Francisco route in December, making it the only airline to offer direct flights between the South Island and the US. In November, American Airlines will also operate a seasonal service on the Auckland-Los Angeles route. Auckland Airport Chief Customer Officer Scott Tasker said it is an “exciting” time, with seven airlines flying non-stop to eight North American cities during the summer. “It’s great to see some existing airline partners, like United, boost options for travellers, but having Delta touch down here for the very first time is just fantastic,” said Tasker. “If we look through to January, we’ve got 27 more flights per week to North American destinations than we had back in January 2020. That really signals the level of demand out there to visit and enjoy what’s on offer in New Zealand.”<br/>
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Indonesia on Friday flew its first commercial flight using palm oil-blended jet fuel, as the world's biggest producer of the commodity pushes for wider use of biofuels to cut fuel imports. Operated by flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, the Boeing 737-800NG aircraft carried more than 100 passengers from the capital Jakarta to Surakarta city about 550 kmaway, Garuda Indonesia CEO Irfan Setiaputra said. "We will discuss further with Pertamina, Energy Ministry and other parties to ensure this fuel is commercially reasonable," Irfan said during a ceremony, adding the plane was set to return to Jakarta later on Friday. Garuda conducted several tests including a flight test on the new fuel earlier this month and an engine ground test in August. The palm-oil blended jet fuel is produced by Indonesian state energy firm PT Pertamina at its Cilacap refinery, using hydroprocessed esters and fatty acid (HEFA) technology and is made of refined bleached deodorized palm kernel oil. Pertamina has said the palm-based fuel emits less atmosphere warming greenhouse gases compared with fossil fuels, and palm oil producing countries have called for the edible oil to be included in feedstock for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). "In 2021, Pertamina successfully produced 2.0 SAF in its Cilacap unit using co-processing technology and was made of refined bleached deodorized palm kernel oil with production capacity 1,350 kilolitres per day," said Alfian Nasution, a director at Pertamina.<br/>