This talk is transcribed from Kevin Noertker’s talk on stage at Interactive 2026 and lightly edited for ease of reading.
It seems like just yesterday, I was flying along the shore of Maui. Below us was one of the most breathtaking landscapes on Earth: deep blue ocean stretched to the horizon. Dark lava rock lined the shore. Lush forests clung to steep cliffs with waterfalls spilling toward the sea. And off our wing, Haleakalā rose above the clouds.
It looked like any regional flight. But then, we did something unusual. Mid-flight, we shut off the combustion engine. Instantly, the cabin went quiet. The familiar rumble of an aircraft engine gave way to the soft, steady whir of electric propulsion. And in that moment, watching that landscape pass beneath us in near silence, I had a very clear thought: This is the inevitable future of aviation.
Aviation is one of the most extraordinary systems in the modern world. It moves more than a third of global trade by value. It links communities that would otherwise be isolated. It carries more than 4 billion people each year.
But aviation also carries a growing burden. Today, it accounts for roughly two and a half percent of global carbon emissions—on par with entire countries like Germany or Japan.
The challenge is that the industry cannot simply reinvent itself overnight. Aircraft are long-lived assets. Safety and reliability are non-negotiable. And airlines operate on razor thin margins. There are more than 100,000 aircraft already flying worldwide built around today’s infrastructure and economics.
So as we move toward broader industry change, we also need to stay grounded in near-term realities. If the path forward depends on waiting for entirely new systems, entirely new aircraft, and entirely new infrastructure, we may fail to lower emissions fast enough.
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