Proactive Investors - Virgin Atlantic hailed the first transatlantic flight using sustainable fuel, saying it proved the concept and the scale of emissions it would save.
While the Boeing (NYSE:BA) 787 flew from London Heathrow to New York JFK in November on only sustainable fuel, Virgin has released the data for the first time.
Around 95 tonnes of carbon dioxide was produced or 64% less than a standard flight and the equivalent of taking 54 cars off the road for a year.
Non-CO2 emissions were also cut by 40% while the SAF was slightly more efficient (1%) than current aviation fuels.
“Building on the success of Flight100, the industry must continue to radically collaborate for aviation to use SAF on all flights globally,” Virgin said.
“UK Government must now match ambition with action – implementing its SAF mandate and moving at pace to invest in a revenue certainty mechanism to create a UK SAF industry, 10,000 jobs and nearly £2 billion of economic value for the UK by 2030.”
Virgin chief executive Shai Weiss added: “SAF is a safe drop-in replacement for fossil fuel and can be used with today’s infrastructure.
“We are ready to fly 100% SAF, but a scale-up in production of [around] 100 times from where we are today is needed to meet 10% SAF by 2030.”