Today GOL Airlines performed the first of a series of 200 regular green flights (‘voando verde’) from Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais, Brazil) to Brasilia. BE-Basic, and its partners TU Delft, KLM and SkyNRG were invited to this event as the new members of the Plataforma Mineira de Bioquerosene. The platform stimulates the development of sustainable aviation biofuels.

Luuk van der Wielen (Chair of the BE-Basic Board) and Patricia Osseweijer (leading BE-Basic’s societal program), were among the 150 participants watching the preparations of the flight in which they also participated.

BE-Basic and its partners were explicitly welcomed by Luiz Antonio Athayde Vasconcelos, the Secretary of Strategic Development, Ministry of Economic Development, for the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil to the partnership “given their leadership in biorenewables development in general, and aviation biofuels in particular. GOL and Minas Gerais would like to learn from the international experience of SkyNRG, KLM, TU Delft and BE-Basic”

Upon arrival in Brasilia, Luuk van der Wielen said: ” BE-Basic is proud to become a partner in this exciting initiative to boost the development of sustainable biokerosine, and congratulates GOL and the State of Minas Gerais with the Biokerosine Platform. We are looking forward to shape the collaborative program in the coming months”. Reflecting on the flight, Patricia Osseweijer added: “sustainable development of biofuels in general needs to follow clear criteria, yet understanding their impacts requires experimentation. It is good to see how GOL and others show the leadership to test aviation biofuels in actual operations and learn and improve practices this way.”

In september 2014, the partnership around aviation biofuels plans to launch their collaborative plans.