17/08/2019
Airline: Alaska Airlines
From: The USA since 1932 (as McGee Airways)
Slogan: "Fly smart. Land happy."
IATA Designator: AS
Fleet: 330+
Destinations: 115+
Alaska Airlines is a major American airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area of the state of Washington. It is the fifth-largest airline in the United States when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and number of destinations served. Alaska, together with its regional partners, operates a large domestic route network, primarily focused on connecting from the state of Alaska to over one hundred destinations in the contiguous United States, Hawaii, Canada, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Alaska Airlines is not a member of any of the three major airline alliances. However, it has codeshare agreements with 17 airlines, including member airlines of Oneworld, SkyTeam, Star Alliance, and unaffiliated airlines. Regional service is operated by sister airline Horizon Air and independent carrier SkyWest Airlines.
The company was founded in 1932 as McGee Airways, offering flights from Anchorage, Alaska. Today, most of the airline's revenue and traffic comes from locations outside of Alaska, but the airline plays a major role in air transportation in the state. It operates many flights linking small towns to major transportation hubs and carries more passengers between Alaska and the contiguous United States than any other airline.
The airline operates its largest hub at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, and it also operates hubs in Anchorage, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco and focus cities at San Diego and San Jose.
As of 2018, the airline employs over 21,000 people and been ranked by J. D. Power and Associates as having the highest customer satisfaction of the traditional airlines for twelve consecutive years.
Through the airline's parent company, Alaska Air Group, it is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol ALK and is part of the Dow Jones Transportation Average and the S&P 500 Index.
On April 4, 2016, Alaska Air Group announced it would acquire Virgin America, an airline based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. With Virgin America operating hubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the merger greatly expands the presence of Alaska Airlines in California and the West Coast.
The United States Department of Transportation issued a single operating certificate for a combined Alaska Airlines and Virgin America on January 11, 2018. The airlines merged into the same passenger service system on April 25, 2018, meaning that most of the customer-facing portions of the company (including flight numbers, website, mobile apps, and airport check-in kiosks) have a single brand: Alaska Airlines. Virgin America's final flight was on April 24, 2018. On June 2, 2019, the last Virgin America aircraft was repainted
Alaska Airlines operates a mainline fleet consisting primarily of Boeing 737 series aircraft, with some Airbus A320 family aircraft formerly operated by Virgin America. Regional flights are operated with Alaska branded Bombardier Q400 and Embraer 175 planes by the Alaska-owned regional airline Horizon Air and contractor SkyWest Airlines.
Alaska Airlines operated with an all-Boeing 737 mainline fleet from August 25, 2008 until January 11, 2018, at which time Alaska officially took possession of Virgin America's fleet of Airbus aircraft. The airline's long-term strategy is to return to operating an all-Boeing 737 mainline fleet, but the transition will likely take many years as most of the Airbus A320 family aircraft are leased, with contracts set to expire between 2021 and 2024.
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Airline: Horizon Air
From: The USA since 1981
Slogan: "Fly smart. Land happy."
IATA Designator: QX
Fleet: 60+
Destinations: 40+
Horizon Air is a regional airline based in SeaTac, Washington, United States. Horizon Air and its sister carrier Alaska Airlines are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group and all Horizon-operated scheduled flights are marketed and sold by Alaska Airlines. Planes operated by Horizon are co-branded as "Alaska Horizon" in recognition of the Horizon brand and to differentiate aircraft from those operated by Alaska's other regional airline partner, SkyWest Airlines.
Horizon Air was once the eighth largest regional airline in the US, serving 42 cities in the United States and Canada. It was purchased by Alaska Air Group in November 1986 and continued to fly as a separately branded airline until 2011, when it shifted to the current capacity purchase agreement business model.
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Photos from Alaska Airlines and staff contributions
Airline Bio from wikipedia
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