First Mexico bio-fuel flight takes off

No passengers were on board for the planes maiden voyage, but executives from the Interjet airline said that they hoped to have commercial biofuel flights by the end of this year.A mix of biofuel and jet fuel was used for the passenger-less flight. It flew from Mexico City to Tuxtla Gutierrez, 650 kilometres south. Gilberto Lopez Meyer, director of Mexican airports, believes this is a great opportunity for many industries.“The biofuels issue goes to other sectors, so different to the aeronautic industry, it makes a great development and gives so much opportunities to the agriculture industry in the country,” Meyer said.Interjet has been expanding its fleet recently, taking advantage of the demise of rival Mexicana, which stopped flying in mid-2010 because of financial problems.Honeywell, the group which provides Interjets biofuel machinery, says carbon emissions can be reduced up to 85 percent in biofuels flights. The worlds first biofuel flight by a commercial airline was by Virgin Atlantic in 2008.