Rankings / Alaska Airlines
2025 report cardAlaska Airlines
In 2025 Alaska Airlines flew 71.6 passenger-miles per gallon of jet fuel, ranking 5 of 13. That's 18% better than the all-airline figure that year. Since 2000 its figure has risen 98%.
About Alaska Airlines
Alaska is based in Seattle and built its network around the West Coast and Alaska itself. Horizon Air, owned by the same parent company, counts as Alaska throughout this site. Alaska took over Virgin America at the end of 2016 and bought Hawaiian Airlines in September 2024, though Hawaiian still files separately and keeps its own page here.
- 71.6passenger-miles per gallon, 2025
- 0.136 kgCO2 per passenger-mile
- 83%of seats filled
- 96seats per flight on average
The story in the figures
Alaska Airlines' passenger-miles per gallon rose 98% between 2000 and 2025, from 36.2 to 71.6. Most of that came from the aircraft: seat-miles per gallon rose 63%, while planes ran fuller, with 68% of seat-miles filled in 2000 against 83% in 2025.
The shape of the flying changed as well: the average flight went from 85 seats to 96, and the average passenger flew 678 miles per segment in 2000 and 1,293 in 2025. In general, larger aircraft spread fuel over more passengers, and longer flights spend a smaller share of their fuel on takeoff and climb.
Its best year was 2024, at 72.5 passenger-miles per gallon.
In 2020 the pandemic emptied the cabins: load factor dropped from 84% to 55%, and passenger-miles per gallon fell from 67.6 to 47.9. A flight burns most of its fuel whether the seats are full or not, which is why an empty year looks so bad per passenger. By 2025 the figure was 5.9% above its 2019 level.
Against the all-airline figure for 2025 (60.6), Alaska Airlines was 18% better. On a 1,000 mile trip that works out to 136 kg of CO2 for one passenger, from burning jet fuel only.
What one seat costs the climate
CO2 for one passenger on Alaska Airlines, from burning jet fuel only.
- 68 kgover 500 miles
- 136 kgover 1,000 miles
- 272 kgover 2,000 miles
Alaska Airlines sells seats on flights operated by regional partners. In 2025 about 0.3% of its seat-miles were flown by regionals. How much of each regional's flying belongs to Alaska Airlines is an estimate based on the hubs the regional serves. The figure for 2025 sits between 67.2 and 71.6 passenger-miles per gallon depending on how multi-airline regionals are split. See the methodology.
Alaska and Virgin America began reporting jointly in April 2018, and Virgin America flying in 2018 is counted with Alaska. Horizon Air, which Alaska Air Group owns, counts as Alaska throughout. SkyWest also flies for Alaska, and our hub method gives that flying no share, so the Alaska figure may be a few percent too high; the range line shows how far it could move.
Year-by-year figures
| Year | Passenger-miles per gallon | kg CO2 per passenger-mile | Seat-miles per gallon | Load factor | Passengers (millions) | Fuel (million gallons) | CO2 (thousand tonnes) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 71.6 | 0.136 | 86.4 | 82.9% | 42.8 | 773 | 7,536 |
| 2024 | 72.5 | 0.135 | 86.3 | 83.9% | 42.2 | 778 | 7,589 |
| 2023 | 72.2 | 0.135 | 86.3 | 83.6% | 41.1 | 766 | 7,469 |
| 2022 | 71.3 | 0.137 | 84.4 | 84.5% | 39.0 | 693 | 6,755 |
| 2021 | 57.1 | 0.171 | 77.6 | 73.6% | 31.5 | 654 | 6,374 |
| 2020 | 47.9 | 0.203 | 86.7 | 55.3% | 17.5 | 414 | 4,039 |
| 2019 | 67.6 | 0.144 | 80.5 | 84.0% | 47.1 | 809 | 7,888 |
| 2018 | 65.3 | 0.149 | 78.2 | 83.6% | 47.5 | 827 | 8,061 |
| 2017 | 68.2 | 0.143 | 80.7 | 84.5% | 35.3 | 558 | 5,437 |
| 2016 | 67.7 | 0.144 | 80.6 | 84.0% | 34.6 | 525 | 5,123 |
| 2015 | 69.5 | 0.140 | 83.0 | 83.8% | 33.5 | 479 | 4,669 |
| 2014 | 68.4 | 0.143 | 80.7 | 84.7% | 31.4 | 449 | 4,378 |
| 2013 | 64.2 | 0.152 | 75.3 | 85.2% | 29.3 | 448 | 4,366 |
| 2012 | 63.9 | 0.153 | 74.8 | 85.5% | 27.5 | 419 | 4,082 |
| 2011 | 61.8 | 0.158 | 73.6 | 84.0% | 26.9 | 406 | 3,959 |
| 2010 | 60.1 | 0.162 | 73.3 | 81.9% | 25.4 | 383 | 3,730 |
| 2009 | 56.9 | 0.172 | 72.8 | 78.1% | 24.5 | 369 | 3,601 |
| 2008 | 53.1 | 0.184 | 69.6 | 76.3% | 26.5 | 406 | 3,963 |
| 2007 | 51.1 | 0.191 | 67.8 | 75.4% | 27.6 | 424 | 4,131 |
| 2006 | 50.2 | 0.194 | 66.3 | 75.7% | 26.9 | 416 | 4,051 |
| 2005 | 50.4 | 0.194 | 67.2 | 75.0% | 26.4 | 394 | 3,838 |
| 2004 | 45.6 | 0.214 | 63.3 | 72.0% | 25.9 | 417 | 4,061 |
| 2003 | 41.0 | 0.238 | 59.8 | 68.6% | 23.4 | 406 | 3,957 |
| 2002 | 38.8 | 0.251 | 57.9 | 67.1% | 21.2 | 383 | 3,735 |
| 2001 | 37.4 | 0.261 | 55.1 | 67.8% | 19.5 | 363 | 3,541 |
| 2000 | 36.2 | 0.270 | 52.9 | 68.3% | 19.8 | 371 | 3,621 |
The Alaska Airlines fleet
Alaska Airlines operated 243 passenger aircraft of its own in 2025. The average age was 9.1 years: 39% of the aircraft were under five years old and 6% were twenty or older. The oldest was a Boeing 737-700 built in 1999. That's the 4th youngest of the 12 airlines ranked here.
In 2006 the average age was 8.9 years across 116 aircraft. It's about the same now, and the fleet is bigger.
On the Boeing 737 MAX 9, Alaska Airlines fits 178 seats on average, against a median of 179 at the other airlines that fly it (179 to 179). Seats on the same aircraft are one reason fuel per seat and fuel per passenger differ between airlines: the fuel burned by a given plane is much the same, and more seats share it.
Alaska Airlines aircraft by model, 2025
| Model | Aircraft | Average seats | Other airlines, median seats | Average age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boeing 737 MAX 9 | 80 | 178 | 179 | 2.3 |
| Boeing 737-900 and 900ER | 79 | 181 | 179 | 9.4 |
| Boeing 737-800 | 59 | 157 | 175 | 17.1 |
| Boeing 737 MAX 8 | 14 | 159 | 175 | 0.4 |
| Boeing 737-700 | 11 | 120 | 143 | 25.3 |
All the airlines are compared on the fleets page.
Neighbours in the ranking
Nearby airline results
These airlines sit nearby by passenger-miles per gallon in their last data year. Historical airlines have different end years, shown here, so this isn't a same-year ranking.
Airline references
Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Schedule P-12(a) fuel, T-100 traffic and regional Schedule T-2 filings; US EPA jet-fuel CO2 factor. See the methodology.