Qatar Airways First To Fuel Planes With Natural Gas

Qatar Airways plans to become the first airline in the world to fuel its aircraft with natural gas, the company’s chief executive said in an interview.

Akbar al-Baker said the airline was talking to oil giant Royal Dutch Shell and engine manufacturers about using a form of diesel made from natural gas, known as GTL, or Gas-to-Liquids fuel, in its planes; and as soon as the engine manufacturers certify their engines to be used with GTL, Qatar Airways will be the first airline to fuel its airplanes with GTL.

Qatar has the world’s third-largest gas reserves and is keen to develop the use of GTL; Smart and logical thinking.

Al-Baker also said that Qatar Airways planned to buy 80 Airbus A350 XWB wide-body jets in a $17.2 billion deal.

Personally I'm really impressed by Qatar Airways and their growth over the past few years, they'll be giving Emirates a hard run for their money.
Other than the growth, I think it's great that they're taking steps towards using cleaner technologies, although their goal might actually be to tap into their natural gas resources, but well if along the way they help the environment a bit, that's always good.

In fact I'm not impressed just by Qatar Airways but by Qatar as a whole; a lot of money is being invested in building up the country and its profile worldwide, and I think it's great.
Sometimes it does feel as if they're going straight after the UAE and somehow copying them, but if it works, then that's what counts, and all the best to them.

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