Lufthansa has launched a six-month trial to use biofuel on all regular scheduled flights. It will operate an Airbus A321 on the Hamburg-Frankfurt-Hamburg route four times daily, with one of its engines running on a 50/50 mix of regular fuel and biosynthetic kerosene.

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has approved the biofuel jet engines. Biokerosene has similar properties to conventional kerosene so can be used for all aircraft types and doesn’t need to be modified to the aircraft or its engines.

Chairman and CEO of the Lufthansa Group Christoph Franz said: “Lufthansa is the first airline worldwide to use biofuel in scheduled daily flight operations. We are thus continuing to steadily implement our proven and successful strategy for sustainability.”

Franz said the point of the trial was to examine the effects of biofuel on the maintenance and lifespan of aircraft engines. The use of biofuel reduced CO2 emissions by up to 1,500 tonnes during the test period.