China Eastern Airlines (MU) successfully implemented first validation flight for China's self-developed aviation biofuel, which received certification from Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on April 24th, 2013.

This validation flight is of special significance, marking the successful conclusion of the cooperation among China Eastern Airlines, China Sinopec and China National Aviation Fuel (CNAF) on promoting the biological jet fuel project. The successful test flight and certification from CAAC mean China's self-developed biological jet fuel can be officially put into use in flight operations, which is a new breakthrough for these three state-run enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities and commitment of environment protection. It will inevitably have an extensive and far-reaching impact on the application of domestic new energy and the sustainable development of green low-carbon flight.

Early in the morning 05:43 a.m. on April 24, with the franchised flight permit for aviation biofuel issued by CAAC, an A320 aircraft of China Eastern Airlines took off into the sky powered by aviation biofuel and operated a test flight of 1.5 hours. The aircraft completed the test flight successfully and landed smoothly at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (SHA) after recording important data and indicators during the flight.

It is learned that the aviation biofuel made of palm oil and recycled cooking oil was produced by Sinopec Zhenhai Refining and Chemical Company.

China Eastern Airlines had made several special researches and tests with CAAC, Sinopec and CNAF on aviation biofuel airworthiness indicators, quality testing, flying safety assessment, economic evaluation and biological jet fuel storage & transportation, and had made full preparations for the validation flight. All these efforts laid a solid foundation for the success of the validation flight.