Biofuels: their emergence and implications for sustainability in aviation

Abstract

The global aviation industry is facing complex and unpredictable market conditions with fluctuating oil prices and the adverse environmental impact of aircraft operations. Since the regulatory approval for biofuels, the first biojet fuel flight test in 2007, using a blend fuel, was a remarkable step towards having more test and schedule flights up to the year of 2014. The purpose of this paper is to engage this new alternative energy with the issues that airlines associate with sustainability, mainly focusing on aircraft operations and profitability. The key findings suggest that the uses of alternative energy need to be in parallel to the reliability and maintainability of the aircraft system, so that the adoption of biofuels can be effective.