On March 8 the first biofuel-powered intercontinental passenger flight operated by a national airline company took place and a KLM Boeing 777 flew from JFK (New York, USA) airport to Schipol (Amsterdam, NL). The aircraft was fueled by a blend of 25% used cooking oil and 75% conventional fuel.

This will not be a unique event. In fact, KLM has planned a biofuel flight per week on a 25 weeks pilot program, aiming at a 20% CO₂ reduction per ton/kilometer by 2020.
In this case the biofuel is not made using new raw material, such as agricultural products, but instead it is a reuse of waste material, as it comes from processed cooking oil. The supply is provided by a company (SkyNRG) leader in sustainable fuels. Thanks to this initiative, SkyNRG gained the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels certification.

In the future the source of biofuel will probably be changed, turning to a more available biofuel, but this step is important as a first stone for a new approach to fuel choice in intercontinental flights, which are surely a relevant source of CO₂ emissions.

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