Alaska Airlines ranked No. 1 in fuel efficiency for U.S. airlines, in a report released recently by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), an independent, nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C.
This is the fifth year in a row that Alaska has ranked No. 1.
Alaska led all 13 major U.S. carriers as the most fuel-efficient airline operating in the United States in 2014, outperforming the least fuel-efficient carrier by 25 percent.
Alaska says it has made a substantial investment in aircraft, operating technologies and exploring sustainable aviation biofuels over the last 10 years.
In 2011, for example, Alaska and United Airlinesoperated separately the first-ever U.S. commercial flights powered in part by advanced biofuels.
Key contributors to the ranking included Alaska's new Boeing 737 and Bombardier Q400 fleets; aerodynamic improvements like split-scimitar winglets; and innovative flying efficiencies such as the Greener Skies procedures for more pinpointed landings using Required Navigational Performance (RNP) techniques that Alaska pioneered. The airline also is saving on the ground with new operational measures to reduce idling at the gates and use of electric ground-support vehicles.
Through these efforts, Alaska has reduced its carbon emissions by 33 percent (measured by flying one passenger one mile) over the last decade.
Earlier this year, Boeing and Japanese aviation industry stakeholders partnered to develop sustainable aviation biofuel for flights during the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, when millions of people are expected to visit Japan. The Initiatives for Next Generation Aviation Fuels (INAF)— a consortium of 46 organizations including Boeing, ANA (All Nippon Airways), Japan Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines, Japan's government and the University of Tokyo— laid out a five-year "roadmap" to develop biofuel by 2020 as a way to reduce aviation's environmental footprint.