Alaska Airlines – Cleaning up Air Travel

Just in TIME for Earth Month, we are so proud to land a coveted spot on TIME’s list of the 100 Most Influential Companies of 2022 for our work in sustainability. Today, TIME revealed the second annual TIME100 Most Influential Companies list and Alaska Airlines is on it for making ambitious gals to reach net zero by 2040.

Alaska has a long history in environmental responsibility, and this honor reflects continued effort from people across the company to minimize fuel burn, reduce emissions, recycle, innovate, and avoid waste. All these actions work together to help us be a better, more efficient airline,” said Diana Birkett Rakow, SVP of public affairs & sustainability. “There’s a lot of work still ahead to be as efficient as possible.”  

Alaska was selected because of our commitment to making meaningful changes in the climate impact of aviation. This is all part of caring for people, the places we fly and the communities we serve. Throughout the last 12 months, we’ve put a range of initiatives into action to ensure we’re driving forward innovation in sustainability and the industry.

Sustainability highlights:

We announced bold climate goals and our five-part path to reduce carbon and reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040.

We partnered with Boeing to launch a 737-9 ecoDemonstrator to test advanced technologies that can enhance the safety and sustainability of air travel.

We became the first carrier to implement Flyways, AI software that plots more efficient routes. Over the course of a year, Flyways helps us cut flight times and save 1.6 million gallons of fuel. We’ve made other significant impacts on the industry in sustainability.

In October, we launched our new LLC, Alaska Star Ventures, a new investment arm that leverages partnerships and investments in emerging technologies.

We re-started our industry-leading recycling program and launched Boxed Water and recyclable paper cups on all flights, eliminating 1.8M pounds of single use plastic in our water service.

Alaska has piloted the use of different types of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for more than a decade, and SAF is now certified as safe and available to mix with traditional fuel. We currently use and are partnering to advance SAF production with Neste and SkyNRG.