FROM take away to take off, Thomson Airways will become the UK’s first airline to fly holidaymakers on recycled cooking oil.
In a bid to cut its carbon footprint, the airline will transport passengers from Birmingham to Mallorca later this month.
Vastly improving its green credentials, it will lessen the dependence of the airline on oil and set a crucial marker for the future.
Following a final safety clearance, the airline will transport passengers via the biofuel on July 28.
Weekly flights will then begin in September for a year before switching the route to Birmingham-Alicante during the winter schedule.
While currently more expensive than normal fuel, the new fuel will help Thomson meet the owner TUI Travel’s admirable plan to reduce the carbon emissions from its airlines by six per cent between 2008 and 2014.
Managing director Chris Browne said: “As sustainable bio fuels become more commercially viable, Thomson Airways plans to expand its use of sustainable bio fuels across its fleet over the next three years.”
The announcement comes a week after Dutch airline KLM operated the world’s first biokerosene-powered flight, when a Boeing 737-800 jet flew 171 passengers from Amsterdam to Paris, using the same cooking oil-Jet-A mix that Thomson plans to use.
Meanwhile European airlines, bio fuel producers and the EU Commission have committed themselves to producing two million tonnes of bio fuel for aviation by 2020.
