In this episode of The SAF Podcast, Diana Birkett Rakow, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs and Sustainability at Alaska Airlines and incoming CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, joins Oscar for a deep dive into how the airlines are shaping their SAF strategy and how it plays into overall emissions reductions ambitions. 

We dig into Alaska’s five-part path to net zero by 2040—operational efficiency, fleet renewal, SAF, new propulsion and airframes, and only then high-quality removals—and why the middle lever, sustainable aviation fuel, is the one that can move emissions at scale this decade.

We also discuss how potentially the role of the airline in scaling SAF is changing, traditional offtakes alone won’t unlock the market. Agreements with Neste, World Energy, Cosmo Oil and Philips 66 get molecules of SAF into the ring, but are not having the desired fly wheel effect of indicating the level of demand to scale production. 

Diana highlights the real change will come from building deep partnerships with early stage producers developing new technologies, such as Twelve and AIRCO alongside investments from their Alaska Star Ventures investment arm.  

This has been expanded with the new $150 million fund launched with Breakthrough Energy Ventures and oneworld Alliance partners, designed to identify and scale next-generation SAF technologies. With deep technical expertise and a global lens, the fund targets pathways that can scale, hit strong carbon intensity scores, and compete on cost

We also look at the more regional scale work being done in Hawaii with the Par Hawaii. There is a real drive to build out renewable energy security highlighted by the  $90 million investment in renewable fuel production and trials of camelina as a locally-grown feedstock.