American Airlines goal to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050

Andrea Thompson

ByAndrea Thompson

July 4, 2024

American Airlines has released its 2023 Sustainability Report, documenting its work to advance the company’s strategy to address climate change and accelerate the broader solutions needed to decarbonize aviation, and sharing progress on other issues important to the company and its stakeholders – including safety, human capital and customer experience.

Key progress in 2023 includes American’s collaboration with Breakthrough Energy and Google Research on ground breaking contrail avoidance research, which will inform how the industry might address its impact on climate change. The report also includes a discussion of how American is extending its commitment to sustainability to its sourcing and procurement practices.

“Thanks to the hard work of our more than 140,000 team members, American continues to deliver for our customers while making strides toward our sustainability goals,” said American’s CEO Robert Isom. “There is far more work to be done and many areas where we will continue to rely on policymakers and partnerships to make progress. But I’m proud of our record — from advancing the development of lower-carbon technologies, to our work to better develop and recruit a diverse and talented group of leaders with unmatched expertise throughout the company.”

Through ongoing engagement across the company and with a broad range of external stakeholders, American has identified four priority sustainability issues discussed in detail in the report: safety; support for team members; customer satisfaction and operational performance; and climate change and fuel efficiency. American has maintained its commitment to its long-term sustainability goals, while recognizing the challenges and interdependencies in reaching them.

“American’s goal to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is the right one, but it won’t be easy,” said American’s Chief Sustainability Officer Jill Blickstein. “Our report describes the concrete steps we have taken and sets the stage for the hard work in the years ahead. American is committed to working with our partners inside and beyond the aviation industry to get us and our industry on a path to meet these global challenges.”