LAX to SFO flights from United Airlines move to biofuel blend

On Friday, United Airlines announced that its flights between Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport will now be partly powered by a biofuel mix supplied by an LA-based company called AltAir Fuels.

United runs four or five flights between LAX and SFO every day, and it will fill these planes up with a combination of 30 percent biofuel and 70 percent traditional jet fuel, according to the Washington Post. The biofuel portion of the mix will be made with a range of biological source materials “from used cooking oil to algae,” the Post writes; it was developed with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The airline has agreed to purchase 15 million gallons of the mix over the next three years from AltAir. Still, the Los Angeles Times points out that United burned through 3.2 billion gallons of traditional jet fuel last year, so that 15 million gallons is just a proverbial drop in the jet fuel barrel.

Nevertheless, the move to biofuel is an inch toward more sustainable air travel. United claims in a press release that it’s the first airline to pledge to use biofuel for regularly scheduled travel. It also claims that the fuel it's buying from AltAir "reduces carbon emissions by as much as 60 percent when compared to standard jet fuel.”

According to the Post, up to half of traditional jet fuel volumes can be cut with AltAir’s biofuel without requiring alterations to the plane’s engines.

Thus far, biofuel in planes hasn’t taken off because the economics haven’t been right (PDF)—biofuel has long been quite expensive compared to pure jet fuel. Back in 2011, Alaska Airlines flew 75 flights with a 20 percent biofuel mix, but that experiment ended after those flights were done. United did not specify how much the new fuel will cost compared to traditional jet fuel.

Other airlines may be following suit as well—according to the Post, “Both Southwest Airlines and FedEx have reportedly contracted with a company called Red Rock Biofuels to start buying renewable jet fuel.”