From France to Canada it was the first intercontinental flight with used oil for frying

French regulations stipulate that from 2022, 1% of this type of biofuels must be incorporated.

An Air France Airbus A350 plane took off this Tuesday afternoon from Paris to Montreal (Canada) on the first intercontinental flight using a fuel with a mixture of 16% frying oil.

This biofuel, produced in the refinery that the oil group Total has in La Mède, near Marseille (southeast of France), makes it possible to avoid the emission of 20 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) on this flight, the four companies highlight in a statement. associated companies in the experience.

Airbus, Air France, Total and Paris Airports (ADP) stressed that this common initiative concretizes their ambition to decarbonize air transport and develop the production in France of sustainable aviation fuels, an “indispensable” requirement for their use in the country's airports.

According to Air France calculations, using this frying oil mixture represents an extra cost per passenger of about 4 euros for the journey between the French capital and the Canadian city. To avoid a loss of competitiveness, its objective is for the use of these biofuels to become generalized for all airlines.

French regulations stipulate that starting in 2022, 1% of this type of biofuels must be incorporated into all flights leaving the country, a percentage that will then have to rise to 2% in 2025 and 5% in 2030.

In parallel to this Tuesday's operation, Airbus is carrying out a series of tests to certify airliners that can use 100% biofuels "in the coming decades."

The Franco-Dutch group Air France-KLM boasts of being one of the pioneers in experimenting with these fuels, with a first flight carried out by a KLM aircraft in 2009.

Its general director, Benjamin Smith, emphasized that sustainable fuels, together with fleet renewal, constitute the main medium-term mechanisms for the objective of halving CO2 emissions per passenger between now and 2030.

The CEO of Airbus, Guillaume Faury, called for all actors in the sector to get involved in a coordinated manner to increase the relative weight of these biofuels, which could already be used with a 50% mixture in their planes “without any modification or operational impact” and would serve to reduce the environmental impact.