Yesterday Virgin Atlantic became the first airline to fly a commercial plane on a blend including biofuel. A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 flew from London Heathrow to Amsterdam Schiphol fuelled with a 20% biofuel/80% kerosene mixture in one of its four engines. The biofuel used a combination of coconut oil and babassu nut oil which came from sustainably cultivated crops. However, according to the BBC “Environmentalists have branded the flight a publicity stunt and claim biofuel cultivation is not sustainable”. Greenpeace has said that “last year, a leaked World Bank report said the steep food price rises of around 75 per cent seen over the year were mainly driven by biofuel production in US and Europe”. Now as much I like the idea of air travel being more environmentally friendly it brings about the question, who is right about biofuel? Are airlines just testing biofuels for more publicity or are they really trying to save the planet? Unfortunately we will not know the answers to these for a few years yet…..