(UNITED STATES (IMPLIED BY American Airlines AND ALASKA AIRLINES)) American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and the oneworld Alliance have launched a $150 million Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) investment fund with Breakthrough Energy Ventures, effective September 17, 2025, to speed up development and bring next-generation SAF technologies to market. Branded as the oneworld BEV Fund, the effort seeks to move SAF from promise to practical scale by backing new technologies, building a stable supply chain, and pushing costs down so cleaner fuel can compete with kerosene across global routes.
The announcement centers on a clear goal: support SAF that can cut real-world emissions, plug into today’s aircraft and airport systems, and meet the long-term fuel needs of busy flight networks. Current SAF can lower lifecycle emissions by up to 80% compared to conventional jet fuel, but production remains tiny and prices remain high. Today, SAF makes up less than 1% of global jet fuel and typically costs 3–5 times more than standard fuel, limiting wide adoption despite strong interest.
Fund participants and leadership
Leadership for the BEV Fund comes from cornerstone investors American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, joined by oneworld members including International Airlines Group (IAG), Cathay Pacific, and Japan Airlines, along with non-alliance partner Singapore Airlines.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures, founded by Bill Gates, will serve as investment manager for the oneworld BEV Fund. The manager will use its technical and commercial expertise to identify, fund, and scale projects with strong potential. Its role includes judging which technologies can move from lab to large facilities and helping those candidates overcome the “first-of-a-kind” hurdles that often stall cleaner fuels before they reach steady supply.
According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, this joint move is the largest collective airline investment in SAF to date and signals a turning point for industry-led climate action.
Objectives and investment focus
The oneworld BEV Fund will invest in novel SAF pathways with the potential to:
- Deliver strong emissions cuts at lower cost
- Be compatible with current aircraft engines and airport fueling systems
- Build supply chain resilience (feedstocks, production, distribution)
Key investment priorities include:
- Supporting technologies that can scale from pilot to commercial facilities
- Backing projects that secure long-term offtake agreements to reduce financing risk
- Pooling demand across multiple carriers to send a clear market signal to producers
By pooling demand from airlines across North America, Europe, and Asia, the fund aims to help new SAF plants secure financing—investors favor buyers with scale and credit strength.
Industry context and the challenge ahead
Aviation’s climate math is stark:
- The sector accounts for an estimated 2–3% of global CO₂ emissions.
- The industry supports $4.1 trillion in economic activity and 86.5 million jobs worldwide.
Because many flights—especially long-haul international service—cannot be easily electrified or powered by hydrogen in the near term, SAF is widely viewed as the most workable path to net-zero for those operations.
Current barriers include:
- SAF comprises <1% of jet fuel today
- SAF typically costs 3–5x more than kerosene
- Gaps exist in feedstocks, refining capacity, offtake certainty, and distribution
The fund targets these gaps to drive volume, support learning curves, and reduce costs so SAF becomes more affordable and widely available.
Policy, government role, and coordination
The fund’s backers stress that private capital alone is not enough—policy support is essential. They are urging governments to:
- Set stable rules that attract investment
- Support early production to reduce project risk
- Expand feedstock sourcing and anchor long-term price signals
U.S. agencies have already outlined SAF scale-up objectives through initiatives like the Department of Energy’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge, which provides a coordination framework; see the official DOE resource at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Human and economic impact
If the fund succeeds in scaling SAF, benefits will extend beyond carriers to include:
- Workers and communities dependent on aviation jobs
- Airports and outstations that require reliable fuel deliveries
- Consumers and corporate travelers seeking lower-emission options
The initiative responds to regulatory and consumer pressure by building capacity that could meet future rules and expectations. It underlines that climate investments in aviation affect families and firms that rely on connectivity for opportunity, education, and health.
Collaboration across airlines, alliances, and investors can reduce duplication and help promising technologies cross the “valley of death” from pilot projects to commercial scale.
How the fund will operate in practice
- Focus on drop-in fuels that integrate with current engines and fueling infrastructure for faster adoption.
- Emphasize technical due diligence and commercial discipline in project selection.
- Prioritize solutions that tackle practical barriers: feedstock logistics, plant financing, and airport supply chains.
- Use offtake agreements to give producers the certainty needed to build and expand.
Over time, as supply increases and costs come down, scaling these fuels could provide more predictable emissions reductions than waiting for disruptive airframe or engine changes.
Media contacts
- Shahaley Bornstein (Breakthrough Energy Ventures): [email protected], (469) 688-2211
- Chris Singley (oneworld): [email protected], +1 (817) 308-1288
- Chris D’Aloia (American Airlines): [email protected], +1 (682) 473-0622
- Alex Da Silva (Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines): [email protected], +1 (808) 391-5728
Takeaway
The message from the oneworld Alliance, American Airlines, and Alaska Airlines is direct: to reach real emissions cuts at scale, the industry needs SAF that is affordable, available, and compatible with current systems. The BEV Fund is built to pursue exactly that outcome—blending targeted capital, technical assessment, and coalition demand to move the sector toward cleaner flight while keeping global connectivity intact.
This Article in a Nutshell
American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and the oneworld Alliance, with Breakthrough Energy Ventures, launched the $150 million oneworld BEV Fund on September 17, 2025, to accelerate next-generation Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). The fund targets drop-in SAF pathways that reduce lifecycle emissions, plug into existing aircraft and airport systems, and scale supply chains across North America, Europe and Asia. With SAF today representing under 1% of jet fuel and costing 3–5 times more than kerosene, the fund will emphasize technical due diligence, offtake agreements and pooled airline demand to lower financing risk and bring production to commercial scale. The initiative highlights that private capital must be paired with stable public policy to attract investment, expand feedstock sourcing, and ensure long-term price signals. If successful, the fund could reduce aviation emissions while supporting jobs, airports and global connectivity.
