Currently, sustainable aviation fuel is considered the most effective way to reduce CO2 emissions. On October 31, KLM and the Costa Rican government signed a letter of intent to ratify the co-operation: this is the first time that an airline has entered into an agreement of this kind with a country.
In the months to come, KLM will share its knowledge and expertise with the Costa Rican government, in close co-operation with its partner, SkyNRG. In 2009, KLM became world’s first airline to operate a flight using sustainable biofuel. At that time, the flight carried only observers but soon after, in 2010, the first commercial flight took off. Since that time, KLM has operated more than 1,000 flights using bio-based jet fuel, from such places as Paris, Rio de Janeiro, New York and Oslo.
In response to the demand for sustainable biofuel, KLM founded SkyNRG and initiated the Corporate Biofuel Programme. With the help of this co-operative effort, KLM has been operating all of its flights from Los Angeles partially on sustainable biofuel since 2012. In fact, KLM is today the only European airline operating intercontinental flights using this mixture.
The use of sustainable biofuel can see a reduction in CO2 emissions by as much as 80% compared to fossil fuels. However, the market for sustainable biofuel is far from mature, so the price can be up to three times higher than that of fossil fuel. For the time being, KLM is using sustainable biofuel made only from recycled cooking oil.
