Global airline leader Lufthansa is set to begin a six-month trial using biofuel on commercial flights. is set to begin a six-month trial using biofuel on commercial flights. Starting in April 2011 with an Airbus A321 the test program is scheduled on commercial flights of the Hamburg-Frankfurt-Hamburg route. The primary purpose of the project is to conduct a long-term trial to study the effect of biofuel on engine maintenance and engine life. “Lufthansa will be the world’s first airline to utilize biofuel in flight operations within the framework of a long-term trial. This is a further consistent step in a proven sustainability strategy, which Lufthansa has for many years successfully pursued and implemented,” said CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber.
At a joint press conference today, Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber, with Peter Hinze, Parliamentary State Secretary and Government Aerospace Coordinator, and Professor Dr. Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Chairman of the Executive Board of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), presented a biofuel project planned by Lufthansa. The project is backed by the government within the framework of its aviation research program aimed at underpinning the sustainability of air traffic.
About 77 per cent of German aviation research funding (LUFO) is directly or indirectly related to the environment and sustainability. The Germans believe an integrated research approach offers the best chance of achieving the ambitious climate protection objectives by 2020 and, simultaneously, safeguarding the technological competitiveness of the German aviation industry.