Virgin Atlantic flies transatlantic with engines powered by cooking oil

Virgin Atlantic this week recorded a milestone, operating the first transatlantic jetliner powered by Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) made from cooking oil.

The airline operated the flight from London’s Heathrow to New York’s JFK airport with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Virgin founder, Sir Richard Branson, Transport Secretary Mark Harper and Virgin Atlantic chief executive Shai Weiss, were among the passengers on the flight. The flight did not charge fares.

A delighted Branson said: “The world will always assume something can’t be done, until you do it. The spirit of innovation is getting out there and trying to prove that we can do things better for everyone’s benefit.

“Virgin Atlantic has been challenging the status quo and pushing the aviation industry to never settle and do better since 1984,” he said. The Transport Secretary added that today’s 100 per cent SAF-powered flight shows how the world could decarbonise transport both now and in the future, cutting lifecycle emissions by 70 per cent and inspiring the next generation of solutions.

“This Government has backed today’s flight to take off and we will continue to support the UK’s emerging SAF industry as it creates jobs, grows the economy and gets us to jet zero,” Harper said.

Asked whether the greenest option would be for the flight not to take off, he told BBC Breakfast “people want to fly and this Government wants to make sure they can continue doing so, but in a way that delivers on our environmental provisions”.