Recycled cooking oil powers Finnair flight

On 23 September, Finnair used sustainable biofuel to operate its Airbus A330 flight from Helsinki to New York.

SkyNRG Nordic, a joint venture between SkyNRG and Statoil Aviation, provided the biofuel mixture, which was partly manufactured from cooking oil recycled from restaurants.

At present, aviation biofuels costs more than double the price of conventionally produced jet fuel and so is not yet economically viable for any airline to operate with exclusively.

'As air traffic contributes 2% of all greenhouse gas emissions, it is very important to have this trial with the use of biofuels,' says Finland's Minister for International Development Pekka Haavisto. 'If the price of oil rises and biofuels become cheaper, there will hopefully be a day when we'll be able to replace at least some of the fossil fuels with fuels made of renewable and waste material.'

With its partners, Finnair is currently looking at the possibility of establishing a biofuel hub at Helsinki Airport.