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KLM Loves The Color Blue, But They Are Also Keen On Green

November 30, 2009 at 12:09 PM | by | Comments (0)

Last week while many of us were getting ready to run through the TSA gauntlet to visit friends and family, there were actually some people pretty pumped to be out at the airport. Reporters and airline executives were all excited to see what KLM Royal Dutch Airlines had up its sleeve regarding some new gas for one of its planes.

The airline tested out a blend of biofuel in one of its planes. This has been done on other airlines like Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand, but on this KLM test flight there were actually passengers aboard the plane. It wasn’t a normally scheduled flight, but the plane took about 40 passengers up into the sky to circle around for a little bit. One of the plane’s four engines used a 50-50 blend of the new green juice and regular old-fashioned airline gas.

Of course everyone at the airline is busy patting one another on the back, as they are quite excited about the successful test. However, we really wonder if this green technology is really going to improve any airline’s dependence on fossil fuels. We’ve seen several airlines do this before, and maybe we’re just impatient, but it seems like it’s just a publicity stunt at this point.

After all, the airlines are going to need some pretty large farms to grow loads of camelina—that’s the magical plant that produces this new earth friendly airplane juice. We’ll try our best to stay optimistic; however, if things are going to eventually work out the airlines will need to get approval to use the biofuel mixture in commercial flights. This approval is expected to come later in 2010, and will probably bring along some sort of fee for the pleasure of flying aboard a green flight.

Related Stories:
· KLM Biofuel Flight Fuels Hopes For Green Airlines [Times Online]
· Air New Zealand Sends Its Biofuel Jumbo Jet to the Wreckers [Jaunted]
· Airline News coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Hyougushi]

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