Minutes ago, predictably successful Flight 418, a Boeing 747-400 (Registration D-ABTB) from Frankfurt(FRA) to Washington Dulles (IAD) arrived safely after it’s 8hr 12min journey.

What makes this flight significant is the fact that it accomplishes a landmark achievement in the the airline industry. It demonstrates the successful use of BioFuels as an alternative to the current fuels being used to power jet airliners.

For Lufthansa this flight marked the conclusion of 6 months of test flights that had been taking place in Germany. 1187 flights were successfully operated using a 50/50 BioFuel/Regular fuel mix on flights between Hamburg(HAM) and Frankfurt(FRA)since July of 2011.

With this achievement, Lufthansa demonstrates the ability for an aircraft to significantly reduce the amount of carbon pollution that is released into the atmosphere. When an aircraft uses BioFuel it is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by 50%.

On this specific flight, the amount of carbon emissions that was reduced was the equivalent of pollution that is released by 6 flights between Frankfurt and Berlin.

For more on this topic, you can read my post here. Or visit Lufthansa’s website covering the topic here: http://www.puresky.de/en/