Richard Branson - sustainable aviation fuels 'will compete'

The aviation industry will be able to switch to low-carbon fuels “sooner than thought” according to Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson.

The billionaire businessman was speaking ahead of the launch of a new website RenewableJetFuels.org, which assesses the progress of firms producing renewable fuel for aviation, and said that the industry should work towards a goal of 50% sustainable fuels by 2020.

"I would be very disappointed if not. Once the breakthrough takes place, getting to 50-100% is not unrealistic. Aviation fuel is 25-40% of the running costs of airlines so the industry is open to new fuels." Branson said in an interview with the Guardian.

"Unlike cars where there are millions of filling stations, there are only about 1,700 aviation stations in the world. So if you can get the right fuel, like mass-produced algae, then getting it to 1,700 outlets is not so difficult."

According to RenewableJetFuels.org, of the 40 companies claiming to be able to provide fuel at the large scale amounts required, only one third are “credible” from an economic, scalable and sustainability perspective.

Branson announced last month that he hoped Virgin would be able to use waste gasses from industrial steel and aluminium plants as fuel after a successful test three years ago where Virgin flew a plane to Holland on coconut fuel.

"The industry thought it was PR. BA was pretty dismissive, saying planes will never fly on bio-fuels. But it actually kickstarted thinking. Since then, even BA has started investing in new biofuels.

"We're heading in the right direction. The industry could go from one of the dirtiest to one of the cleanest in 10 years. We are investing in different companies and really beginning to see traction".