Alaska Airlines is focusing on flying the eco-friendly skies with a new sustainable fuel deal. The airline has signed a four-year agreement with renewable fuel producer Neste.
“We are, as an industry and I think as a society, we’re on a journey to make sure that we are reducing carbon emissions and protecting our environment,” Diana Birkett Rakow, vice president of external relations at Alaska Airlines, told Cheddar. “And there’s no time like the present to keep making progress.”
Rakow said Alaska Airlines has flown 80 trial flights using sustainable fuel. Renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel will now be used on all of its flights out of San Francisco.
“Our long-term goal is to make sustainable fuel a viable, commercially available, scalable product that we can use across all of our operations and really for all of aviation,” Rakow said.
Customers should not notice any changes during their in-flight experience. The change comes as more and more consumers are voicing demands for increased sustainability from big businesses, even beyond the air travel industry.
“One of the things that’s actually going to make reducing carbon emissions successful is involving our guests in wanting us to move in this direction, in purchasing carbon offsets, and continuing to demand that more and more airlines use sustainable fuel so that we can build a sustainable market for this product,” Rakow said.
Alaska Airlines is currently trying to recover from the coronavirus pandemic that has devastated air travel. Rakow said the airline was flying 130,000 passengers per day pre-pandemic, but at the lowest point dropped to 5,000. She said about 35,000 to 45,000 passengers are now flying per day.
The PGA Tour has announced that it will suspend players that are competing in the LIV Golf event that teed off today. At least 17 players, including names like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Sergio Garcia are banned from the PGA Tour competition. Hilary Fordwich, a business analyst and golf expert, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the PGA had to go this route. This is a threat to the future of golf for them, and there's been many contentions about them not being fair and that this is vindictive," she said. "Don't forget, of course, they represent sort of a monopoly in the history of golf. So you've got two sides to this story. You've got those the purists, those that feel that golf should only be a certain way and that there are only these limited events that the PGA puts on. And then you've got other people who are saying … this is all about money"
Facebook parent Meta officially has changed it’s ticker symbol from ‘FB’ to ‘META’. Paul Meeks, a portfolio manager, Independent Solutions Wealth Management, and a professor of practice in the Baker School of Business at The Citadel, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the tech giant has had to make big changes to its name, its ticker, and its business plans. "When you see what's happening in digital advertising — and there was a slowdown there even before the threat of a recession, which could cause a even more drastic slowdown next year — they had to pivot," he said. Meeks noted he sees Facebook dominating in the metaverse space going forward — whatever that may end up being.
Sports merchandising company Fanatics announced it will be making trading cards featuring college athletes, a deal made possible by the NCAA's change to NIL rules for its players. Anchors Kristen Scholer and Ken Buffa break down the deal for Cheddar.
Catching you up on today’s top business headlines with household wealth falling in Q1 for the first time in two years, Meta officially changing its ticker symbol from ‘FB’ to ‘META’, and updates on Tesla.
The European Union has approved a 40 percent quota for women to sit on company boards. This comes as only 9 of the 27 EU member states have gender equality legislation.
Amanda Victoria, co-founder and CEO of Siponey, joins Cheddar News to talk about the company's canned cocktails. The spritz is made with only four ingredients — wildflower honey, aged rye whiskey, sparkling water, and fresh lemon juice.
