Archive for the 'Alaska' Category

Alaska to Cut Los Angeles – Cancún Service

Published
by
Dan Webb
on March 3, 2010
in Alaska
. 0 Comments

Earlier this week, Alaska notified the DOT that the airline plans to cut service from Los Angeles to Cancún, a flight that Alaska has been operating for years. According to Alaska’s current timetable, the flight is operating six days a week with 737-800 aircraft. Service is slated to end on June 6.

Interestingly enough, on June 9 United’s usual Saturday-only flight goes to daily for the summer. Mexicana is a player on the route as well, and Delta currently has Saturday-only service. So maybe this route just wasn’t working out with so many players. Alaska also mentions that it will continue to place its code on Delta’s flights on this route, so the airline probably thought it could pull its own metal out of the market but still get revenue through its partner. I do wonder if Delta might increase capacity in the market now.

Meanwhile, Alaska will continue serving Cancún on a seasonal basis from Seattle. The carrier also serves a few other Mexican destinations from LAX (Guadalajara, Ixtapa, Loreto, Manzanillo, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo).

Photo Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/as737700/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Alaska Selects…Gogo?

Published
by
Dan Webb
on February 24, 2010
in Alaska
. 5 Comments

This morning, I saw the headline “Alaska Airlines To Offer Gogo Inflight Internet Service” pop into my inbox, and I honestly though it was a mistake! The airline has been testing Row 44’s satellite-based service on a 737-800 for awhile now. Row 44 seemed to make more sense for Alaska than Southwest, the only other American customer, as Gogo is only available over the continental United States, and Alaska has a bunch of flights in, well, Alaska, but the carrier has also developed a significant Hawaiian presence as well.

An Alaska 737-800. These aircraft will be the first to be installed with Gogo.
Photo Credit: Alaska Airlines.

So why go with Aircell? Alaska’s VP of marketing, sales, and customer experiences said in a press release that “their reliable, lower-cost equipment can be installed quickly, allowing Alaska Airlines to introduce Gogo service to our customers as soon as possible.”

There’s a big reason – Aircell installations are cheaper, but they’re also very quick – the company says the equipment can be installed overnight so the air carrier doesn’t lose an revenue. Row 44, however, is more expensive, is more complex to install, and will only be getting started with installations with Southwest later this year. Aircell, however, seems to have installations down to a science.

But what happens to those passengers traveling in Alaska? Well, Gogo “will expand its network” to provide service, but only for “key destinations.” (Which were not listed.) Passengers flying to Hawaii are out of luck, however. But apparently Alaska thinks the benefits of Aircell on the installation side of things more than compensate the greater coverage area that Row 44 offers. (Random thought – are the operational benefits that Aircell have be showing off realized when service is unavailable for chunks of Alaska’s network?) Continue reading ‘Alaska Selects…Gogo?’

United Announces Return to Anchorage

Published
by
Dan Webb
on January 18, 2010
in Alaska, Frontier and United
. 0 Comments

United announced last week that would come back to Anchorage after leaving in 2008. In the past, United flew there year-round with an increase in service during the summer, but in 2007 it said that the city would only be a seasonal destination. A year later, the decision was made to cut all service entirely.

But after a year hiatus, United will come back with the same destinations it had when it left: its Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco hubs. All will have daily service, though Chicago gets an extra frequency on Saturdays. The Saturday-only service to Chicago starts a couple of weeks before the daily flights, and ends a couple of weeks after.

The routes are already flown by other carriers, so for the heck of it, I played around with some online timetables to see the increase in capacity that the new service would be providing:

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Anchorage to O’Hare is interesting, as it is a new route for American this summer as well (like United’s, the service is seasonal). One benefit for American’s new service, is that because of their partnership with Alaska, their new Chicago service carries Alaska’s code.

What I found to be very interesting, however, is the new San Francisco service, just from a scheduling perspective. The Denver and Chicago flights are timed pretty close to those of the competitors, but San Francisco is different. Alaska’s current nonstop service takes place overnight,  while United’s is during the day. That might just be the best way it fit into the schedule, as it appears one 757 flies ORD-ANC-SFO, while another flies SFO-ANC-ORD. I guess I’m wondering if the different timing will give one airline an advantage over the other.

But Anchorage has certainly been getting some nice boosts in service of late. Awhile back US Airways announced seasonal service to Philadelphia, and last week Continental announced seasonal service to Portland.

Special Liveries from Alaksa and Horizon

Published
by
Dan Webb
on November 18, 2009
in Alaska and Horizon
. 3 Comments

Alaska Airlines and regional subsidiary Horizon Air each had a special livery unveiled yesterday. Due to my obsession with special paint schemes, I naturally had to blog about them. :D

Alaska is a sponsor of Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno, and as such revealed a specially-painted 737-800, registered N596AS. The Seattle-based carrier is also sponsoring the website followapolo.com, where fans can track Ohno’s Olympic journey.

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Meanwhile, sister airline Horizon unveiled the first (registered N439QX) of two Q400s in a special “Comfortably Greener” livery, which is the airline’s way of touting the environmental benefits of the Q400, such as lower emissions. (Or, to put in in less PR-friendly terms, the Q400 is cheaper to operate compared to other 70-seat RJs, partly because it uses less fuel. So, less emissions is a convenient by-product of cheaper operating costs.)

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Click above to enlarge.

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The second Q400 in this special scheme arrives next month. Horizon is slowly phasing out its CRJ-700 aircraft, and the airline estimates it will be operating a single fleet type by the end of 2013.

Alaska Continues to Grow Hawaii Flights

Published
by
Dan Webb
on November 11, 2009
in Alaska
. 0 Comments

This week, Alaska has launched new service to Maui and Kona from Oakland, and yesterday the Seattle-based carrier announced a couple additional Hawaiian flights.

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Photo credit: Chris Weyer. Used with permission.

On March 11, Alaska will begin service from San Jose to Maui (three times a week), and on the next day will launch service to Kona (four times a week). On March 26, the airline will launch daily service from Sacramento to Maui, which is a flight  that was operated by Aloha before it went bust. Hawaiian Airlines flies to Honolulu from both cities.

It’s certainly nice to see carriers like Alaska (and now Continental) help fill in the void left behind by the departures of ATA and Aloha. Alaska has become a much larger player in the Hawaiian market of late, and very quickly. Alaska only started service to Hawaii a little over two years ago. Service has been growing – especially this year after the airline decided to slash Mexico capacity by 37%. The airline is now up to 73 weekly roundtrips to Hawaii – such growth over a two-year span suggests that Alaska is finding success in the market.

Hawaiian Steps on Alaska’s Turf with New Oakland Flight

Published
by
Dan Webb
on September 21, 2009
in Alaska and Hawaiian
. 0 Comments

sep20Last week, Hawaiian announced some additional flights, which coincides with some changes in the carrier’s fleet. The airline is currently all-Boeing, but that will change next year when the first of three leased A330s will arrive. The airline has also ordered A330s and A350s from Airbus.

The airline will be doing some additional flying during the summer season. San Diego-Maui will be launched again – Hawaiian did operate route in summer 2008, but did not this year. Meanwhile, the airline said it would be adding an additional flight between Los Angeles and Honolulu with one of the new A330s, though at this point, it is listed as a 767-300 in Hawaiian’s timetable.

But one of the interesting moves is new daily summer service between Oakland and Maui. ATA and Aloha operated this route before they went bust, but this year Alaska announced it would start operating the route four times a week starting in November. The new flight from Hawaiian complements its existing flight from Oakland to Honolulu.

Clearly, Hawaiian thinks there’s more demand in the market, and a daily 767-300 is a lot of capacity compared to Alaska’s four 737-800s a week. It will be interesting to see how this one shakes out, at least for the summer – Hawaiian’s flight starts on June 18 and runs through September 6. I wonder if Alaska will decide if it’s worthwhile to add any additional capacity in this market.

Photo Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uzvards/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Revisiting Alaska’s July Revenue Numbers

Published
by
Dan Webb
on August 28, 2009
in Alaska
. 0 Comments

Earlier this week, I had already discussed Alaska’s July numbers, but I realized I could analyze those a bit more. The airline noted that PRASM (passenger revenue per available seat mile) and RASM (revenue per available seat mile) were affected positively by the first bag fee, and the company estimates it earned $4.9 million from that in July. Meanwhile, Alaska estimates that a new agreement on the company’s Mileage Plan card will give the company an extra $2.5 million each month for the rest of this year.

These items, obviously, give the numbers a bit of a boost, so I decided to play around with them to remove that extra revenue. For RASM, I got 12.72 cents, and I calculated 11.64 cents for PRASM (compared to 13.07 and 11.87 cents, respectively). Comparing my numbers to last years’, I found a 1.99% decrease in RASM and a 3.25% decrease in PRASM (compared to a 0.7% increase and a 1.3% decrease).

Obviously, the removal of those other revenue make the comparisons to last year look a bit worse. Nevertheless, the decreases I calculated are still superior to the double-digit declines that some other carriers have reported.

Alaska’s Monthly Investor Update

Published
by
Dan Webb
on August 24, 2009
in Alaska
. 0 Comments

Alaska releases a monthly update with some traffic and financial data, and it’s always interesting to take a look. First, let’s look at revenue. PRASM was down 1.3% year-over-year and RASM was actually up 0.7%. That’s great, right? Well, not so fast. Alaska reports:

RASM and Passenger RASM were favorably impacted by first bag fee revenue, which began on July 7, 2009, of approximately $4.9 million for Alaska mainline. Given the seasonally high passenger count for July, this amount is in line with our previously disclosed estimate of $70 million in incremental annual revenue for Air Group. RASM was also favorably impacted by the revised Mileage Plan affinity card agreement described in our second quarter 10Q which we estimate will provide approximately $15 million in incremental revenue for the last six months of 2009, or approximately $2.5 million per month.

So, those pesky bag fees make comparing harder, especially when comparing the carriers. From United’s Q2 release:

There is no consistent industry practice among airlines regarding the recording and classification of ancillary and other revenues. Some ancillary revenue products, such as premium seat upsell revenues, are consistently recorded by most airlines as passenger revenue. Certain other ancillary revenue products, such as first and second bag fees and ticketing and change fees, are classified by
some other carriers in other revenue. For United, first and second bag fees and ticketing and change fees are recorded in passenger revenue.

So those RASM numbers are making the situation look a bit better than it actually is.

But, on the bright side, advanced booked load factors look good – up 1.5 points for both August and September. And that could be a good sign – Alaska had an  a 3.5 point increase for July in its last update, but  the increase was actually 4.6 points. Two things on that – first, still doesn’t say much on revenue. But it also goes with what Virgin America CEO David Cush told me – that advance loads aren’t the greatest at predicting actual traffic. It seems to me that more people are booking close-in.

Like many other airlines, Alaska is seeing an increase in CASM ex fuel and items, and the airline is predicting an 8% increase for the third quarter. Alaska also estimates its fuel cost per gallon will be down 36% year-over-year in the third quarter.

Anyway, off to NBTA festivities! :D

Alaska and Southwest Tell The FCC To Approve Row 44

Published
by
Dan Webb
on July 3, 2009
in Alaska and Southwest
. 0 Comments

One of the biggest changes in inflight entertainment/services in the past few months has been the introduction of inflight Wi-Fi, and carriers like AirTran, American, Delta, United, and Virgin America (which has the entire fleet equipped) have been adopting it. These carriers have all been using Aircell’s ground-based GoGo service.

Meanwhile, Alaska and Southwest have been testing Row 44’s satellite-based system for a few months now, and Southwest is now trying to figure out what to charge for the service. Unfortunately, these two airlines can’t roll out Wi-Fi fleetwide until the FCC approves Row 44, and this process has been conveniently been slowed down by a competitor, ViaSat.

Mary Kirby, also known as “Runway Girl,” reports in an article from yesterday:

In a joint letter filed on 1 July with the FCC, lawyers for Alaska and Southwest say the expeditious grant of Row 44’s application for a permanent license “will generate enormous benefits, including substantial work for almost a dozen technology companies all over the United States at a critical time in our economy”.

The article also notes that the airlines what to move ahead on this because their competitors are making progress, which makes total sense, and I especially see that from Southwest’s perspective. The airline has been busy focusing on attracting more business passengers, and I think Wi-Fi is an important part of that plan (especially if they offer it for free or a discount to frequent passengers, as suggested here).

But I think the FCC should approve this, not just because I agree with the airlines, but because I’m flying Southwest to California next month, and I don’t think I can go a few hours without tweeting. :D

Alaska’s Aviation Geek Night

Published
by
Dan Webb
on June 29, 2009
in Alaska
. 0 Comments

Alaska Airlines is still a relative newcomer to the social media scene, but it’s been using it effectively basically from the get-go in my opinion, which is a lot better compared to other carriers. I think one very good example is the airline’s utilization of Twitter to get the word out about service disruptions due the eruption of Mt. Redoubt

Last week, Alaska held an Aviation Geek Night for fifteen lucky tweeps, which I think is just great since I always enjoy things that show what’s “under the hood,” so to speak. Attendees were able to have fun in the 737 trainer, have fire extinguisher training, and even spend some time in the simulator!

I think this is just awesome. First, kudos to Alaska for putting this on for free. Second, while I love social media, I still think word-of-mouth is one of the most effective forms of marketing. Gee, do you think the attendees might tell their friends and family about this experience?

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The group, along with Elliott Pesut (far right), Campaign Management Specialist at Alaska and the man behind the airline’s Twitter account (@AlaskaAir).

More pictures (all of them from Alaska’s Facebook page) after the jump. Continue reading ‘Alaska’s Aviation Geek Night’

Alaska To Launch San Jose-Austin; Files 8-K

Published
by
Dan Webb
on June 23, 2009
in Alaska
. 1 Comment

Just after it was announced last week that American would be cutting its San Jose-Austin nonstop, Alaska announced yesterday that it would be filling the void with service starting September 2. Even with Alaska’s new service, though, the route is still seeing a cut in capacity. While it looks like American is currently flying two MD-80s, Alaska’s flight will only be one daily 737-800. One reason I found this interesting is that Alaska announced Austin-Seattle service in February. This route was also one that American dropped.

Brett Snyder makes a very good point in his post about this new route:

Alaska certainly has a smaller customer base in Austin than American does, but remember, you can earn American miles on Alaska flights, and those miles are elite qualifying miles as well. So the loyalists should support this flight.

Meanwhile, the carrier filed an 8-K with the SEC this morning, and I found a few highlights.

First, for the second quarter to date, Alaska is reporting 7.4% decrease in PRASM for May, and a 4.7% decrease for the second quarter to date. Compared to what other airlines have been reporting, that’s not too shabby, I think.

Second, Alaska is estimating to earn $30 million in revenue this year from the first bag fee, and after that it hopes to make $70 million annually from the fee.

Third, and finally, advanced load factors look good. June and July are actually positive – up one and two percent respectively, while August is down 3%. The filing reports that “June and July advanced bookings have significantly improved as the date of travel approaches.” These statisitics don’t provide many clues when it comes to revenue. While fuller planes is a good thing, it depends on who is filling the seats. For example, are the higher load factors coming from passengers looking for last minute deals? Still, it’s something positive.