Worldwide shortage of pilots, technicians forecast

The airline industry has traditionally been wary of adopting alternative fuels, and it’s fair to say, with good reason. An electric car that travels less than its advertised range could create some inconvenience and would ultimately send engineers back to the drawing board. But no one wants to even to think about a plane running on anything other than a fuel that is 100% reliable.
That’s why this week’s agreement between Solena Fuels and a group of major U.S. air carriers is every bit the landmark deal it’s being billed as. Solena, a Washington D.C. company, uses biomass to make fuels. Its facility in California makes the “Green Sky California” fuel that a group of airlines – including Alaska Airlines, FedEx, JetBlue, Southwest, U.S. Airways, Frontier Airlines, Air Canada and Lufthansa – have agreed to use in flights out of the San Francisco Bay Area. The company, which says it is producing the renewable fuel from “recycled agriculture and urban waste,” says it will have the capacity to produce up to 16 million gallons of jet fuel a year.
23/06/11 Molly McMillin/The Wichita Eagle