Qantas Airways conducts Australia’s first commercial flight using biofuel

Qantas Airways flights will now take to the skies using biofuel.

The airline recently conducted Australia’s first commercial flight using biofuel, when Qantas Airways QF1121 flight departed Sydney for Adelaide.

Alan Joyce, Chief Executive of Qantas Airways, expressed happiness over this development, and said that finding a sustainably produced biofuel is a vital step in confronting the potent challenge of ever increasing jet fuel prices. Above all, this also supports the aviation industry’s chief objective of being carbon neutral by 2020.

Joyce said that crude oil price has risen from $65 a barrel in 2006-07 to nearly $125 a barrel in the present times. He said that the market view is that this price is expected to hover at around $100 a barrel in the medium term.

Joyce cautioned that it is quite important to get ready for a future that is not based on traditional jet fuel or else the aviation industry stands the risk of putting its future at stake.

The biofuel used by Qantas Airways to conduct Australia’s first commercial flight was made from used cooking oil, which powered one engine of the Airbus A330 aircraft.