Carrier runs partly on sustainable fuel in test flight
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Long-haul carrier Emirates successfully flew a Boeing 777 on a test flight Monday with one engine entirely powered by so-called sustainable aviation fuel. This comes as carriers worldwide try to lessen their carbon footprint.
Flight EK2646 flew for just under an hour over the coastline of the United Arab Emirates after taking off from Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, and heading out over the Persian Gulf before circling back to land. The fuel powered one of the jet’s two General Electric Co. engines, with the other running on conventional jet fuel for safety.
“This flight is a milestone moment for Emirates and a positive step for our industry as we work collectively to address one of our biggest challenges — reducing our carbon footprint,” Adel al-Redha, Emirates’ chief operations officer, said in a statement.
Emirates, a state-owned airline under Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, described the sustainable fuel as a blend “that mirrored the qualities of jet fuel.” It included fuel from Neste, a Finnish company, and Virent, a business based in Madison, Wis.
Virent describes itself as using plant-based sugars to make the compounds needed for sustainable jet fuel, while Neste’s fuel comes from vegetable oils and animal fats. Those fuels reduce the release of heat-trapping carbon dioxide typically burned off by engines in flight.
Aviation releases only onesixth the amount of carbon dioxide produced by cars and trucks, according to World Resources Institute, a nonprofit research group based in Washington. However, airplanes are used by far fewer people per day — meaning aviation is a higher per capita source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Airplane and engine manufacturers have been designing more efficient models, in part to help keep down costs of jet fuel — one of the biggest expenses airlines face. Emirates jet fuel usage last year cost it $3.7 billion out of its $17 billion in annual expenses.
But analysts suggest sustainable fuels can be three times or more the cost of jet fuel, likely putting ticket prices even higher as aviation restarts after the lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.
It wasn’t immediately clear how much the fuel used in the Emirates’ test cost per barrel. Jet fuel cost on average $146 a barrel at the end of last week, according to S&P Global Platts.
The UAE, a major oil producer and OPEC member, is to host the next United Nations climate negotiations, or COP28, beginning in November. Already, the federation of seven sheikhdoms has come under fire from activists for nominating the CEO of Abu Dhabi’s state oil company to lead the U.N. negotiations known as the Conference of the Parties, from which COP gets its name.