Asia/Pacific

Air China conducts first cargo flight using SAF

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Air China conducts first cargo flight using SAF

Air China recently conducted a successful commercial cargo flight using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for the first time. The bio-jet fuel was produced by Sinopec Zhenhai Refinery, a subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corp. The flight took off from Hangzhou City in east China's Zhejiang Province and landed in Belgium after a span of 12 hours in air, Sinopec said in a statement.

Sinopec began developing the fuel using cooking oil since 2009 and gained airworthiness certificate for the fuel in 2014. It started to produce such aviation fuel at an industrial-scale facility in east China since June this year.

The fuel has already been adopted by China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Air China for domestic flights.

China has become the fourth country with independent research and development production technology of bio jet fuel, following the United States, France, and Finland.

Sinopec along with China National Petroleum Corp has finished four flight test trials using bio jet fuel since 2011.