KLM Royal Dutch Airlines on Thursday launched a series of some 80 biofuel flights from Oslo to Amsterdam with an Embraer 190. It plans to operate the remaining flights over the next five or six weeks, while Embraer conducts measurements to gauge the efficiency of biofuel compared with kerosene. The flights will depart from Oslo Airport, the first airport to supply biofuel directly from its hydrant system since January this year. In addition to biofuel supplied from the hydrant system, fuel trucks will also deliver the fuel for the series of flights operated by KLM Cityhopper.

“KLM believes that sustainable biofuel is important for the airline industry,” said KLM Cityhopper managing director Boet Kreiken. “For this reason, we have for some time been cooperating with different partners, including those united within the scope of the KLM corporate biofuel program, to stimulate the development of the market. Our new cooperative relationship with Embraer and Oslo Airport serves to underscore just how important this is.”

Although Embraer has engaged in several initiatives and partnerships for research and development for biofuels in aviation, the flights with KLM mark the first in which the manufacturer has involved itself on regularly scheduled flights, according to Embraer Europe president Jorge Ramos.

Supplied by Air BP and SkyNRG under the EU’s ITAKA (Initiative Towards Sustainable Kerosene for Aviation) program, the biofuel used in the E190 flights consists of 100 percent RSB (Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials) certified camelina oil and fully complies with the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) standard.

With KLM's flights with biofuel from Amsterdam to Aruba and Bonaire [in May 2014], KLM is our launching customer,” said ITAKA coordinator Inmaculada Gomez. “We are happy to go on with our partnership in the Oslo-Amsterdam series of flights which will bring the commercialization of alternative energy sources for air travel one step closer.”

KLMs aims to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 20 percent per passenger in 2020 compared with 2011 levels through fleet renewal, using sustainable biofuel and increasing flight efficiency.