Air France and Airbus fly green

Air France and Airbus have completed the world's greenest commercial flight by combining the latest fuel and air traffic management technologies, a statement said. "The flight from Toulouse-Blagnac to Paris-Orly using an Airbus A321 has been able to demonstrate the cutting in half of CO2 emitted compared to a regular flight. The [AF6129] commercial flight combined for the first time the use of bio-fuels [50 per cent in each engine], optimised air traffic management (ATM) and efficient Continuous Descent Approach (CDA) to minimise CO2 emissions," Airbus said in a statement, obtained by Gulf News yesterday. Combining these technologies helped halve the overall CO2 emissions to 54 grams per passenger and kilometre. This is equivalent to a fuel efficiency of 2.2 litres of fuel per passenger and 100 kilometres. "This fully-optimised green flight is another proof of Air France's commitment to combine air transport growth with controlled CO2 emissions," said Bertrand Lebel, Air France Executive Vice-President Organisation and Corporate Social Responsibility. "This flight is the perfect example of Airbus' global approach towards continuously reducing aviation's CO2 footprint," said Andrea Debbane, Airbus Head of Environmental Affairs. Bio-fuel is one solution for reducing overall CO2 emissions. Airbus' alternative fuel strategy is to speed up its commercialisation through sustainable bio-fuel value chains. Thanks to several test flights and collaboration with the fuels standards bodies (ASTM and DefStan), today the use of 50 per cent bio-fuel blends are authorised in commercial flights. Meanwhile, Airbus opened a factory in Wales for wings of its A350 wide-body aircraft built mainly from composite materials that's scheduled to enter service by the end of 2013. The facility will have 650 employees once fully operational and had an initial investment of £400 million (Dh2.31 billion), Airbus said yesterday.