LONDON, Feb 24: Virgin Atlantic conducted the world’s first flight of a commercial aircraft powered with biofuel on Sunday in an effort to show it can produce less carbon dioxide than normal jet fuels.

“This breakthrough will help Virgin Atlantic to fly its planes using clean fuel sooner than expected,” Sir Richard Branson, the airline’s president, said before the Boeing 747 flew from Heathrow Airport to Amsterdams Schiphol Airport.

“The demonstration flight will give us crucial knowledge that we can use to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint,” he said.

Some analysts praised the jumbo jet test flight as a potentially useful experiment. But others criticized it as a publicity stunt by Branson, and noted it comes as scientists are questioning the environmental benefits of biofuels.

“It’s great that somebody like Richard is willing to put some of his billions into an experiment aimed at reducing the climate change impact of aviation,” said James Halstead, an airline analyst at the London stockbroker Dawnay Day Lochart.

“But there are a lot of unanswered questions about the usefulness of biofuels in the battle against global warming,” he said.

Sunday’s flight, which landed safely in the Netherlands, was partially fueled with a biofuel mixture of coconut and babassu oil in one of its four main fuel tanks. The jet carried pilots and several technicians, but no passengers.

Virgin Atlantic spokesman Paul Charles predicted this biofuel would produce much less CO2 than regular jet fuel, but said it will take weeks to analyze the data from Sunday’s flight.—AP