Air transport today represents 3% of CO2 emissions in the world. Since 2010, many airline have been experimenting with the use of biofuels during test flights. Today, Air France is going a step further by making this use more regular.
Bio-fuel flights every week
As setting of its Lab’Line for the future initiative, Air France will fly flight AF6133 Toulouse – Paris on Thursdays for two months every week with a mixture of 90% kerosene and 10% biofuel made from cane sugar.
This mixture will generate an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions for these flights, which is significant in the setting of a hypothetical generalization.
A costly initiative, and difficult to generalize
While this initiative is commendable from an environmental point of view and with regard to Air France’s brand image, it remains nevertheless costly: these biofuels are excessively expensive to produce, and the impact on the oil bill should be passed on directly on the price of tickets sold (which is not the case in the setting of this pilot phase). On the other hand, biofuels are produced in very limited quantities, which does not allow their massive use, even within a single airline .
The positive commercial impact must be measured in the long term
If a massive generalization of this type of fuel is envisaged, it must be put into perspective of the maturity of the market with regard to the criterion of eco-responsibility.
Today, the main inducer in the choice of a means of transport, and a fortiori of an airline , is the price, especially on the short and medium haul market, and the comfort in addition for the long haul.
The environmental footprint comes second, and few would choose a more responsible but more (even much more) expensive means of transport.
In any case, the reservation systems will have to adapt so that this criterion is a factor of comparison
Lab’Line for the future, a broader initiative
The use of biofuels is the first phase of Lab’Line for the future. For 1 year, Air France will test different innovations on this flight, relating to boarding, disembarkation, in-flight and ground experience, and I will not fail to report these innovations here!
