Indonesian airline to use biofuel from 2016

National flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia will use avtur, a type of aviation turbine fuel, with biofuel to help reduce its carbon emissions.

Starting in 2016, the airline will use approximately 1.8 billion litres per year of avtur to operate at its aircraft. As a result, from 2016, Garuda's jet fuel consumption is expected to reach 2 billion litres per year.

The state-owned carrier is currently testing the crude palm oil (CPO)-based biofuel at PT Pertamina's laboratory, as it is heavily reliant on its availability.

'We hope that the biofuel can be produced on a large scale so the price will be relatively the same as avtur. Hopefully [biofuel can be] cheaper than avtur,' Garuda Indonesia operational director Captain Novianto Herupratomo Novianto says.

Last December, Indonesia's Transportation Minister EE Mangindaan signed a MoU with Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik on renewable energy in the aviation industry.

Under the MoU, the government looks to reduce their reliance of fossil fuels by using avtur with 2 percent biofuel in 2016 and plan to increase this figure to 3% in 2020.