If you ask Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic Airlines has just taken a major step towards creating an environmentally-friendly jet. Ask others, and you might get a different take on things. Regardless of whether or not you buy into all that Branson says, the fact is that Virgin Atlantic’s test flight from London to Amsterdam could set the stage for future Green endeavors by major carriers.

The Virgin Atlantic test flight involved a 747 that was partially powered by bio-fuel. It was the first commercial jumbo jet to do so. Now, bio-fuel can mean a lot of different things, so it’s important to point out that this specific flight used a fuel derived from coconut oil and a palm tree-based oil.

Keep reading to get both sides of the debate surrounding Virgin Atlantic’s historic flight…

IATA (International Air Transport Association) is not amused (and I thought only Americans got cranky).

Turns out over 170 countries are not amused either (well at least the airlines in those countries…) about the newly approved EU regulation requiring all airlines to join in the EU plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions from its 27 nations by 20% by 2020.

The comments by the chief executive of IATA are (just like a Mastercard) priceless: