This Spicejet flight from Dehradun to Delhi was flown on biofuel.

In August 2018, A SpiceJet airlines flight from Dehradun to Delhi accomplished the feat of using a fuel that was made in a farm. This successful flight of 45 minutes added India to a shortlist of two nations – the others being USA and Australia – to have used biofuel for flying aircraft.

The flight used a blend of aviation turbine fuel with biofuel, and flew incident free. No commercial passengers were harmed (or risked) during the test; the flight carried only airline staff and officials from aviation regulator DGCA. SpiceJet CEO Ajay Singh hopes this will lead to greener and cheaper flights in the future: "It has the potential to reduce our dependence on traditional aviation fuel by up to 50 per cent on every flight and bring down fares."

The left engine of the aircraft was powered by regular aviation turbine fuel (ATF), while the right engine had the biofuel blend (75% ATF + 25% biofuel). The biofuel was derived from the oil-rich seeds of the jathropa plant. These wonder-seeds have a very high concentration of oil—up to 40%—and the oil extracted can be used directly, without refining, in diesel engines and generators. "Power from biofuel was even better than that from regular ATF," SpiceJet's Chief Strategy Office GP Gupta told The Times of India.

Airlines have been experimenting with biofuel for several years. The first test flight took place in February 2008, when Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 made a short trip from London Heathrow to Amsterdam. Collectively, airlines have made over 100,000 flights using blended biofuel in the past decade. However, doubts remain – over an exact globally accepted standard of production of biofuel, consistency of supply and the cost of production.