The airline will operate the UK’s first sustainable biofuel flight from Birmingham to Palma on 28th July 2011, once its stringent testing process has been completed and final safety clearance has been received. Weekly flights will follow on the same route from September.
Thomson Airways says it places sustainability in aviation at the top of its priorities. It firmly believes the adoption of sustainable biofuels by airlines will help achieve the Government’s recently announced carbon budget which commits the UK to reduce its carbon emissions by 50% by 2025.
Most notably, sustainable biofuel has the potential to reduce aviation emissions by up to 80% in the long-term.
However, sustainable biofuels currently trade at a significant premium over regular jet fuel, a premium that the airline industry cannot sustain. The airline says it is imperative that UK and EU governments should consider ways to incentivise the use of, and investment into, sustainable aviation biofuels.
The fuel is supplied by Dutch-based company, SkyNRG, who is advised by an independent Sustainability Board consisting of two leading NGOs and a leading European scientific institute.
The airline already operates one of the highest load factors in the UK industry and therefore makes the most efficient use of its fleet and of the airport slots made available to it. The airline also operates with an emission rate of 75g CO2 per passenger kilometre flown, significantly lower than average emission rates for both low cost and full service scheduled carriers.
Chris Browne, Thomson Airways Managing Director, said: “Sustainability is key to this investment. Sustainable biofuels offer us the opportunity to improve our own individual environmental performance as well as contributing to the UK’s carbon reduction target.
“We urge UK and EU governments to use this opportunity to review the legislation and remove the barriers around sustainable biofuels so that other airlines can follow our lead.”
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