Today, we’re doing a lot to welcome you back on board and ensure you have a safe and enjoyable flying experience with us. We’re also thinking about tomorrow and what the future of aviation looks like for you, our airline, and our planet.
We recently formed a new corporate venture capital fund, United Airlines Ventures (UAV), and made it part of a broader sustainability and innovation strategy focused on the aircraft for the future at United. We have already identified, evaluated, and invested in several companies that are dedicated to making air travel more efficient, including Archer Aviation, Boom Supersonic, Fulcrum Bioenergy, and Heart Aerospace— just to name a few.
Our partnership with Archer will help accelerate the production of advanced short-haul electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that can dramatically reduce commute times to and from the airport in heavily congested cities. Heart Aerospace has the potential to fly customers up to 250 miles on an electric aircraft, and our multimillion-dollar investment in Fulcrum BioEnergy aims to help convert trash to sustainable aviation fuel. Not to mention our new order with Boom Supersonic for the Overture, which will be the first large commercial aircraft optimized to run on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel.
We recognize that you want a more seamless, stress-free journey, and many customers also want more control over their carbon emissions 12 footprint. UAV brings resources together to create a portfolio of technologies that, by getting in on the ground floor, will give us the ability to research, design, and develop aircraft for the future.
We plan to be opportunistic with our investments, knowing that the next breakthrough technology could be right around the corner, while also being thoughtful and measured, as some other ideas may take many iterations before coming to fruition. We are in it for the long haul, and there’s no better time to take steps toward a brighter, greener future.
Through a challenging year, we’ve also taken on larger initiatives to help decarbonize United, and we continue to lead the industry with a multipronged approach to our commitment to become 100 percent green by 2050 without relying on traditional carbon offsets. We look forward to even more on this front. As always, thank you for choosing to fly with United. We’re glad to have you with us.
Mike Leskinen
President, United Airlines Ventures
Vice President, Corporate Development & Investor Relations
