Sustainable Aviation Fuel at Center of Historic Deal

Microsoft Corp. and Alaska Airlines have signed a first-of-its-kind deal to ensure the technology giant’s employees are flying more sustainably while traveling between the state of Washington and California.

Under terms of the agreement, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will be used in Alaska Airline flights between Redmond, WA, and three California airports (San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles).  The sustainable fuel is produced from waste oil and will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions on a life-cycle basis.  The two companies hope that other companies and organizations will emulate this model in order to reduce the environmental impact of business air travel.

Under a separate partnership agreement, Microsoft will purchase sustainable aviation fuel credits from SkyNRG, and this SAF will be delivered to the airport fueling system used by Alaska Airlines.

 “After a decade advancing sustainable aviation fuel, this partnership marks a significant milestone in the work to make SAF a commercially-viable aviation fuel alternative,” said Brad Tilden, CEO of Alaska Airlines. “SAF enables us to fly cleaner and reduce our impact on the environment. However, we cannot do this alone — we must work together with other industries and business leaders like Microsoft and SkyNRG, among others who are thinking big, to achieve our goals and grow the marketplace for SAF.”