Qatar Airways to switch to natural gas fuel by 2012

Qatar Airways will move to natural gas to power its planes from 2012 following its successful first flight from Doha to London using the fuel.

Akbar al-Baker, CEO, told the Gulf Times, the airline will start using GTL Jet Fuel in three years time when it is put into commercial production at the Pearl GTL plant in Ras Laffan.

Qatar’s national carrier made history on Monday when it became the first airline to fly a passenger plane powered by natural gas.

The flight was the latest step in more than two years of scientific work carried out by a consortium consisting of Airbus, Qatar Airways, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Science and Technology Park, Rolls-Royce, Shell and WOQOD into the benefits of using GTL Jet Fuel to power commercial aircraft.

Al-Baker told the paper GTL Jet Fuel has the potential to improve air quality around busy airports because it burns with zero sulphur dioxide emissions.

When asked whether fares would go up once the carrier switches to natural gas, Al-Baker told the paper: “It is true the blend is costlier than the conventional fuel. But we have no immediate plans to revise our fares on account of this.”

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