China's first cross-ocean biofuel flight lands at Chicago airport

CHICAGO -- After flying over 11,000 kilometers, Hainan Airlines Flight 497 which took off from Beijing landed at Chicago O'Hare International Airport at 12:05 pm local time on Tuesday.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner of Hainan Airlines flew with biological aviation fuel that is produced from waste cooking oil, signaling the first Sino-U.S. green route demonstration to use aviation biofuel.

The use of biofuel can reduce carbon emissions while ensuring flight safety and efficiency, according to Hainan Airlines.

Sun Jianfeng, President of Hainan Airlines Co, 787 Captain told Xinhua that today's flight by biofuel is as safe as ordinary aircraft with aviation oil, " after flying to a maximum height of 41,000 inches, we still found the engine runs well and aircraft performance is good and stable."

Sun said Hainan Airlines has always viewed environmental protection and harmonious environment development as top priority, and it proved that Hainan Airlines has the capability to carry out cross-ocean flight using biofuel.

"In the future, we will realize green flight by using more new mode aircraft and applied new computer programs to optimize flight," Sun said.

Darrin Morgan, director of Sustainable Fuels Strategy at Boeing told Xinhua that today's flight by Hainan Airlines is a significant milestone, and more important, the sustainable fuel is produced by Chinese national company -Sinopec.

"Boeing has been collaborating with Sinopec and many other Chinese stake holders over the years quite well in helping to create new sustainable aviation fuel supply chain and setting up new technologies to support the industry. We are looking forward to more collaboration with China in the future." said Morgan

Hainan Airlines made the country's first domestic biofuel-powered passenger flight in 2015.