Paragraph 1
On a late September morning in New York, amid the swirl of Climate Week events and the urgency of a warming planet, Ryan Spies stood before a room of sustainability professionals and delivered a starkly honest message about one of the most difficult industries to clean up. Spies, the managing director of sustainability for Alaska Air Group, was speaking at Bloomberg Green New York, and his presence there was itself a kind of statement. The airline industry, after all, is not an obvious place for easy environmental victories. Planes need enormous amounts of energy to lift thousands of pounds of metal and people into the sky, and there is no battery yet that can replace jet fuel for long-haul flights. Aviation contributes about 2.5 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and when the extra warming effects of contrails and other atmospheric interactions are factored in, its total impact on global temperatures can reach as high as 5 percent. That is a meaningful share, and the pressure to reduce it is growing from regulators, passengers, investors and employees. But Alaska Air Group, the Seattle-based parent company of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, operates in an industry where profit margins hover around 2.5 percent. That leaves almost no room for expensive gambles. Spies described the challenge plainly: the company has to be strategic about every dollar spent on low-carbon technology, because a mistake could threaten the financial stability of the entire operation. This is the paradox of aviation sustainability—the companies that most need to innovate are often the ones least able to afford failure. And yet, Spies made clear, the cost of doing nothing is far greater. The path forward, in his telling, is not a single miracle solution but a portfolio of pragmatic bets, careful partnerships and incremental improvements, all guided by the hard constraints of physics and economics.
Paragraph 2
The first and most immediate tool in Alaska Air’s sustainability toolbox is sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. This is not a futuristic concept; it is a drop-in fuel that can be blended with conventional jet fuel and used in existing aircraft engines without modification. The feedstocks are varied and often humble: used cooking oil from restaurants, agricultural waste, forestry residues, municipal trash and even captured carbon dioxide. The promise of SAF is that it can reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80 percent compared to fossil jet fuel, depending on how it is made. But the reality is sobering. Today, SAF supplies less than 1 percent of all aviation fuel worldwide. Production is expensive, scale-up is slow, and demand far outstrips supply. Airlines that want to buy SAF often find there simply isn’t enough of it. Alaska Air has responded by co-founding a $150 million investment fund with Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and other carriers. The idea behind the fund is not just to throw money at the problem, but to use Breakthrough’s deep scientific and technical expertise to identify which SAF startups are most likely to succeed. Spies explained that Breakthrough’s team can evaluate the viability of different feedstocks, the intelligence of various chemical conversion processes and the strength of a company’s business model. This kind of due diligence is critical, because not all SAF is created equal. Some pathways are more sustainable, more scalable and more economically viable than others. By partnering with Breakthrough, Alaska Air gains access to a network of scientists and investors who have spent years studying clean energy technologies. It is a way to de-risk the airline’s investments and ensure that the fuel it eventually buys will be both environmentally beneficial and financially sustainable. The fund represents a recognition that no single company can solve the SAF shortage alone; it requires collaboration across industries, governments and financial institutions.
Paragraph 3
One of the most striking recent developments in the SAF world is that global events have started to change the economic equation in ways that would have seemed impossible just a year ago. Spies noted that six months earlier, SAF was clearly more expensive than traditional jet fuel. But the Iran War and its disruptive impact on international oil shipping have thrown global energy markets into turmoil. Now, according to Spies, if an airline goes to a SAF producer today, it can get a price that is competitive with conventional jet fuel. That is a monumental shift. The volatility of fossil fuel prices has also reframed SAF from an environmental luxury into a strategic asset for energy independence. In a world where oil supply chains can be severed by conflict or political instability, a domestic source of renewable jet fuel becomes a matter of national security and economic resilience. This new framing is helping to attract broader support, including from government officials who might not prioritize climate action alone. In January, a coalition of Pacific Northwest organizations—including Alaska Air, Amazon, Boeing, SkyNRG and various government representatives—launched the Cascadia Sustainable Aviation Accelerator. The goal is to establish the Pacific Northwest as a global hub for SAF production and innovation. The region already has promising foundations: startup Twelve is producing fuel in Moses Lake, Washington, using a process that converts carbon dioxide and water into jet fuel, and Montana Renewables has emerged as a leader in the sector. By bringing together airlines, manufacturers, fuel producers and policymakers, the accelerator aims to create a self-reinforcing ecosystem where production capacity grows, costs fall and demand is met. Spies emphasized that this kind of regional collaboration is essential. The aviation industry cannot decarbonize in isolation; it needs the support of a broader community that understands both the climate imperative and the economic opportunity.
Paragraph 4
While SAF is the most mature solution, Alaska Air is also looking to the next generation of aircraft design. Two years ago, the airline announced an investment in JetZero, a startup developing a blended-wing body aircraft. Unlike the traditional cylindrical fuselage with attached wings, a blended-wing design merges the body and wings into a single streamlined shape. This dramatically improves aerodynamics, which translates into significantly lower fuel consumption. JetZero claims that its design can reduce fuel use by 50 percent compared to today’s comparable aircraft. For a fuel-hungry industry, that would be transformative. Spies called it a game-changing development. The aircraft is designed to carry more than 200 passengers, placing it squarely in the mainstream commercial market. JetZero hopes to fly a prototype in the near future and begin carrying passengers by 2030, according to a recent report in the Seattle Times. If successful, this could represent one of the most significant advances in commercial aviation efficiency since the introduction of the jet engine itself. Alaska Air has also invested in Ampaire, a company that Spies affectionately described as “the Prius of aviation.” Ampaire specializes in hybrid-electric powertrains, which combine a conventional engine with an electric motor and battery. The system is currently designed for smaller, eight-seat aircraft, making it a practical option for regional routes. Spies expressed excitement about bringing Ampaire’s technology to Hawaii, where the airline’s routes between islands are well-suited for shorter, lower-energy flights. Hybrid-electric propulsion is not a complete replacement for jet fuel, but it represents a meaningful step toward reducing emissions in segments of the market where battery-only flight is not yet feasible. These investments in aircraft innovation reflect a broader belief at Alaska Air that the future of aviation will be shaped by a mix of technologies, each suited to different types of missions.
Paragraph 5
For passengers, the changes coming to aviation over the next decade may be subtle and almost invisible. Unlike the dramatic visual shift of a blended-wing aircraft, many of the early improvements will be hidden behind the scenes—in the fuel being pumped into the plane, the materials used to make the cabin lighter, and the optimized flight routes that save fuel. Spies acknowledged that the experience of flying will not change overnight. The seat stays the same, the in-flight service remains familiar, and the view from the window looks just as it always has. But underneath that surface of normalcy, a quiet revolution is underway. Airlines are testing new fuels, refining their operational practices and investing in technologies that will gradually reduce the carbon footprint of every flight. This incremental approach is a deliberate strategy. Alaska Air understands that travelers are not likely to accept major sacrifices in convenience or cost in the name of sustainability. Instead, the airline is betting that the transition can be managed in small steps, making the industry more sustainable without disrupting the flying public’s expectations. Spies also spoke to the human dimension of this work. The people who work at Alaska Air and its partners are not detached corporate functionaries; they are engineers, pilots, accountants and flight attendants who care about the planet and want to be part of the solution. They are also acutely aware of the financial realities. The airline’s thin margins mean that every sustainability investment must be justified not only by its environmental benefit but also by its business case. This is not a contradiction; it is a necessity. In an industry where bankruptcy is always a possibility, sustainability cannot be an afterthought or a purely charitable endeavor. It has to be integrated into the core strategy of the company, with clear metrics and accountable leadership. Spies’s role is to help navigate that integration, balancing idealism with pragmatism.
Paragraph 6
The road ahead, as Spies described it, is slow, difficult and often frustrating. Aviation is one of the hardest sectors in the world to decarbonize, and the reason can be summed up in two words: pure physics. Getting a heavy object off the ground and keeping it there for hours requires an immense amount of energy, and the energy density of current jet fuel is extraordinarily difficult to match with any alternative. Batteries are too heavy, hydrogen is too bulky and complicated, and SAF production is still far too small. Spies did not pretend to have all the answers. Instead, he offered a realistic but hopeful vision of a future achieved through persistence, collaboration and continuous improvement. Alaska Air’s approach—partnering with Breakthrough Energy, investing in startups, working with regional coalitions and embracing both fuel and aircraft innovations—is a model that other airlines can learn from. It acknowledges that no single breakthrough will solve the problem and that progress will be made through a series of uncomfortable compromises and uncertain bets. But the alternative, ignoring the challenge and hoping the industry can continue as it has, is not acceptable. The planet is warming, the pressure is rising, and the window for meaningful action is narrowing. Spies’s message at Bloomberg Green New York was not one of easy optimism, but of determined action. The airlines that succeed in this transition will be those that are willing to invest early, learn from failure and remain committed to the long game. For Alaska Air, that means continuing to push forward even when the financial margins are thin and the technological obstacles are steep. It means building the future of aviation not with a single leap, but with many small steps, each one bringing the industry closer to a genuinely sustainable way of connecting the world. As Spies left the stage, the audience was left with a sense that while the journey is hard, the destination is worth reaching.
