Today, we are pleased to release our 2023 sustainability report, which highlights progress toward our goals, lessons learned and our path forward.

Aviation connects people and businesses, brings families together, contributes to local economies, and enables opportunity. At Alaska Airlines, we take these opportunities and our responsibilities personally. And when we refer to sustainability, we mean keeping one another and our guests safe, managing our business in balance, and improving our impact on people, our communities, and the planet we share.

Since 2009, our sustainability reports have transparently tracked our progress toward our short- and long-term goals, learnings over the year, and the work ahead.

Here are some highlights from our 2023 report:

Sucking CO2 out of the air is still a very costly endeavor, but one company has taken a big stride toward making the technology commercially viable.

The next generation of industrial plants to filter CO2 out of the air is on the way, and it’s getting closer to overcoming some of the biggest challenges of using this technology to fight climate change. Climeworks, one of the first startups to develop this tech, unveiled its Generation 3 plant today. It’s supposed to use half as much energy as older designs and slash costs in half, too.

More investment in biofuel production and carbon offsetting programs is required to future-proof business aviation, according to UAS International’s president.

While the Middle East business aviation community has traditionally made luxury and comfort a top priority, the industry there is increasingly committed to environmental sustainability, according to Mohammed Al Husary, executive president of UAS International Trip Support. The outcome of the COP28 conference in Dubai late last year demonstrated serious intent to decarbonize, he explained.

The UAE alone committed more than $840 million in investments for renewable energy, he said. His colleague and UAS CEO Omar Hosari attended the third Conference on Aviation Alternative Fuels (CAFF/3) as an observer with the International Business Aviation Council delegation.

“There has never been more active interest and action among private and business aviation stakeholders in the region in their efforts to propel us forward, Al Husary said. “Sustainable aviation will remain a high priority, and not just for the region, but globally too. Hopefully, we will be seeing more investment in biofuels production and carbon offsetting programs.”

Generally, the global aviation industry is looking to Middle East companies to spur developments in the production and distribution of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and particularly in Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration approved the first training program in the country for electric aviation. The program is just one part of a small but burgeoning effort to develop greener battery-powered aircraft for more routine use over time. Aviation correspondent Miles O’Brien reports.

Industry leaders laid out their road plan toward net zero by 2025 on Thursday before the Aero Club of Washington, outlining an effort to rapidly expand the use of sustainable aviation fuel and introduce all-electric and hybrid (and ultimately hydrogen) aircraft.

But to get there, these ambitions need community-wide buy-in, partnerships, and multi-agency government collaborations, said members of a panel moderated by NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen, which included Embraer Executive Jets president and CEO Michael Amalfitano, World Energy Supply Zero president Scott Lewis, and Billy Nolen, chief regulatory affairs officer at Archer and former acting FAA administrator.

“Business aviation is an incubator for game-changing technologies that point the way to a net-zero future,” Bolen said in opening the discussion. “We didn’t just announce that we were going to be net zero by 2050—we’ve made huge investments, and we’re moving forward on multiple pathways.”

Amalfitano agreed. “We are a big part of the ecosystem, not only for today but for the future of air travel and air mobility,” he said, explaining Embraer’s wide-ranging initiatives on the sustainability front…

On May 11, a 1966 Beechcraft Baron C55 with avgas in the right tank and the first unleaded alternative to avgas approved by the FAA in the left wing will join around 60 aircraft in an aerial parade over Washington, D.C.

[…] Advancing technology in the present day, AOPA’s dual-fuel Beechcraft Baron will add to its 165 hours running on avgas in one wing tank and General Aviation Modifications Inc. G100UL unleaded fuel in the other as part of the hourlong parade over the capital. AOPA plans to conduct the next detailed engine analysis (including evaluation of borescope images by Savvy Aviation) soon after those hours over Washington are flown. Analysis and periodic checks to date have revealed no issues impacting engine performance or reliability.

As other unleaded fuels gain FAA approval, AOPA plans to conduct similar exercises that build confidence in as many unleaded fuel options as possible.

CFM reports that it is at a stage of the Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines (RISE) program in which it is doing real testing on real hardware and making real progress.

As the RISE program’s game-changing technologies evolve from promising design concepts to functioning components and systems, the pace of testing is accelerating.

“We are at a stage of the program in which we’re doing real testing on real hardware and making real progress,” says Mohamed Ali, vice president and general manager of engineering for GE Aerospace.

“It’s full speed ahead for the RISE program in 2024,” adds Arjan Hegeman, general manager of advanced technology for GE Aerospace. “It’s a period of innovation unlike anything GE Aerospace has seen before.”

Unveiled in 2021 by CFM International, a 50/50 joint company between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines, the RISE program is advancing technologies to support flight that aims to be 20% more fuel efficient with 20% lower carbon emissions than current commercial engines. It’s a challenge, and one that’s critical to meeting the aviation industry’s long-term climate goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 for commercial flight. More than 100 tests have been completed so far.

Tests on the program’s next-generation high-pressure turbine, which were recently conducted in a demonstrator engine at GE Aerospace headquarters in Evendale, Ohio, confirmed that it can deliver significant fuel efficiency improvement and increased durability. “It demonstrated a generational step-change improvement in our turbine component cooling technology,” Hegeman says. The technology will be useful in the compact core GE Aerospace is developing for the RISE program through NASA’s Hybrid Thermally Efficient Core (HyTEC) program, which …

Carbon dioxide emissions of turbine business aircraft departing from U.S. airports are down 62 percent from 2005, despite higher aircraft utilization.

Carbon dioxide emissions of turbine business aircraft departing from U.S. airports are down 62 percent from 2005, meaning the industry appears to have already achieved its long-term goal of halving emissions by 2050 relative to 2005 levels—at least in the U.S. This is according to data from the Environmental Protect Agency’s (EPA) latest annual inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, released yesterday.

In 2022—the most current year for which EPA has data—turbine business aircraft accounted for 9.8 percent of the 231.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions of all turbine aircraft operations in the U.S. and just 1.3 percent of all transportation emissions in the U.S. These calculations apply to fuel purchased in the U.S. and used by aircraft taking off from U.S. airports.

Notably, the EPA data indicates that carbon emissions from U.S. business jets and turboprops fell 38 percent from 2019 to 2022, while at the same time business aircraft utilization climbed 22.6 percent. Per TraqPak data from Argus International, turbine business aircraft departures from U.S. airports rose from 4.02 million flight hours in 2019 to 4.93 million flight hours in 2022…

Singapore, Paris, Zurich and Indianapolis centres maintain Tier 1 status, phasing out single use plastics and with motion-sensor lighting, energy-efficient appliances and plumbing, and the Valencia centre achieves Tier 2.

Textron Aviation’s commitment to sustainability has been recognised once again as its global service network received recertification as a Green Aviation Business from the National Air Transportation Association. This recognition is part of NATA’s Sustainability Standard for Aviation Businesses programme, which encourages environmental sustainability within the industry.

Four of Textron’s 20 company-owned service centres in Singapore, Paris, Zurich and Indianapolis recertified their Tier 1 status, going above and beyond NATA’s certification requirements and implementing additional sustainable practices.

This includes phasing out single use plastic items, installing motion-sensor lighting and ensuring energy-efficient kitchen appliances and plumbing fixtures. These locations have also developed policies to reduce idling in ground support equipment. For the first time this year, the company’s Valencia service centre in Spain achieved Tier 2 status.

“We continue to invest in our processes and facilities to encourage sustainable solutions across the globe because we understand the importance of driving economic growth while preserving our natural resources,” says senior vice president, customer support Brian Rohloff.

Senator Tammy Duckworth met with local leaders and Monarch Energy Friday afternoon to discuss a proposed waste-to-energy facility in Rockford.

Duckworth met with Swedish and Dutch government leaders who pioneer the clean waste-to-energy technology. Her goal is to replicate the technology in Illinois. She is focused on bringing green energy practices and investments to Illinois because she says they will help create good-paying green jobs and improve environmental justice, reduce waste, expand energy supplies and strengthen businesses.

“We have the opportunity of turning our landfills into energy, into hydrogen power, into sustainable aviation fuel. That is going to make the earth better for our children and grandchildren and help us get rid of landfill waste and create hundreds and hundreds of good paying jobs,” Senator Duckworth says.