Environmental Sustainability Strategy ( T R - A L -110 A .2)
Our long-term decarbonization strategy focuses on five key areas: sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), fleet modernization, nextgeneration aircraft, operational efficiency, and Air Traffic Control (ATC) modernization. Our roadmap outlines how we currently anticipate these drivers will contribute to our decarbonization pathway, and it is dependent on significant advancements in technology over the next two decades. While we will focus on in-sector measures, we expect that carbon offsets or removals may be required to bridge any gap.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Using jet fuel derived from more sustainable sources has the potential to be the most effective way to decarbonize our operations. We are committed to replacing 10% of our jet fuel with SAF by 2030, and our roadmap reflects a significant reliance on SAF to achieve our 2035 and 2050 goals. However, the production of SAF is a nascent industry; there are still very small volumes being produced and the cost of production is currently 2 to 5 times that of conventional jet fuel. Over the long term, the expectation is that SAF will be competitive with conventional jet fuel at scale, but incentives are needed in the short term to drive adoption. We recognize the challenges in scaling up SAF, and we are engaged with our industry partners, SAF producers, states and the federal government to help accelerate its production, availability and distribution at commercially viable prices. We are currently focused on sourcing SAF in California, which is our largest market outside of Hawai‘i and where the state’s regulatory framework incentivizes uplift of SAF. In March 2023, we announced our commitment to purchase 10 million gallons of SAF annually over five years from Gevo, a SAF producer that plans to build multiple SAF facilities in the U.S. mid-west. The facility that will produce our SAF is expected to be completed by 2028 and reach full commercial volumes by 2029. This initial commitment is an important step forward, but we continue to seek additional supply of SAF to meet our considerably larger needs.
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