Mexico City, June 19, 2012. – Aeromexico, Mexico's global airline, together with ASA (Mexico's Airports and Auxiliary Services Agency) and international aircraft manufacturer Boeing, support the Mexican airline industry's commitment to protect the environment by participating in a historical flight operated with bio jet fuel during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), together with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Air Transportation Action Group (ATAG), different airlines and biofuel suppliers, will complete a series of flights departing from Montreal, Canada to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil that will host one of the most important meetings on sustainable development of our times, bringing together governments, international institutions and the main organizations committed to this cause.
This historic flight will operate with four interconnected segments on the Montreal-Toronto-Mexico City-Sao Paulo route that will have as a final destination Rio de Janeiro, all flown with sustainable aviation biofuels. Aeromexico will fly the third and longest leg of the tour with a Boeing 777-200 loaded with 27,000 liters of biofuel supplied by ASA, to cover 4,615 miles.
This is a momentous flight that will transport General Secretary of the ICAO, Raymond Benjamin, who will be accompanied by a Mexican delegation headed by Guillermo Heredia, Coordinator of the ASA Business Units, and Hector Reyes Muñoz, Deputy Director of Quality and Corporate Governance at Grupo Aeromexico.
The flight departing from Mexico City's International Airport bound for Sao Paulo, Brazil will be powered by a blend of 50 percent fossil fuel and 50 percent Bio-Synthesized Paraffinic Kerosene (Bio-KPS), derived mostly from recovered cooking oil (88%), Camelina oil (10%) and Mexican Jatropha oil (2%).
The use of recovered cooking oil in biofuel production provides a double benefit for the environment. With CO2 emissions over its life cycle between 65% and 80% lower than jet fuel derived from oil, its use prevents issue up to 25.5 tons of CO2. The reprocessing prevents that it be disposed of ultimately polluting groundwater and the soil.
The biofuel used adheres to the D7566-11 fuel turbine quality standard according to the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM), which allows for the use of up to 50% of biokerosene.
In order to obtain this oil, ASA collected Jatropha Curcas seeds from throughout Mexico and did commercial trading with Honeywell United Oil Products (UOP) and SkyEnergy, B.V.
Another interesting aspect of this flight is that this is the first time Aeromexico will implement the use of tablets in the Boeing 777-200 cockpit; giving pilots access to digital versions of their Operating Manuals, Navigation Manuals and Letters, which will replace the printed versions. This will reduce the aircraft's total weight, use of paper, fuel consumption and gas emissions.
After successfully operating the first transatlantic flight that took place between Mexico City and Madrid in August 2011 and the weekly Green Flight program between Mexico City and San Jose, Costa Rica, Aeromexico, ASA and Boeing have come together again in a joint effort to promote, use and develop alternate fuels that seek to reduce CO2 emissions.
This event reiterates Mexico's commitment in becoming a sustainable economy by reducing its carbon footprint through lowering carbon emissions and using the latest technologies.
