The airline, said today (February 15), it plans to work with American bio-fuel firm Solena Group and could be running its huge fleet on it by as early as 2014.

BA would build a self-contained plant, which the airline says is ‘likely’ to be sited in one of four sites in east London.

Once built the plant will have the capacity to convert 500,000 tonnes of waste a year into 16m gallons of jet fuel.

According to the airline this volume of fuel would be more than twice the amount required to make all of its flights at London City Airport carbon-neutral.

It also claims the fuel’s reduction in carbon emissions would be the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road per year.

BA also believes the plant would create up to 1,200 jobs in east London and could reduce ‘significantly’ local authority landfill tax bills.

BA’s chief executive, Willie Walsh, said: “We believe it will lead to the production of a real sustainable alternative to jet kerosene.

“We are absolutely determined to reduce our impact on climate change and are proud to lead the way on aviation’s environmental initiatives.”

Luke Walsh

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