Archive for the 'Alaska' CategoryPage 2 of 5

Horizon Air Dropping its Own Brand, Remaining CRJ-700s Leaving This Year

Published
by
Dan Webb
on January 25, 2011
in Alaska and Horizon
. 4 Comments

Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, reported fourth quarter earnings of $1.28/share (excluding special items), exceeding a mean analyst estimate of $1.02/share, according to the company.

A major part of today’s earnings news is some changes at Horizon Air that the company’s management has been hinting at over the past few months. One of the most recognizable is Horizon adopting the mainline Alaska brand. Horzion still gets a decent shout-out on the side, but obviously the Eskimo is instantly associated with Alaska:

Photo Credit: Alaska Airlines.

We’ll see the first Q400 in this color scheme in a few weeks, and Horizon also says there might be some newly-delivered Q400s that fly without a livery as Horizon schedules painting.

While I’m sure this move is very disappointing for many Horizon employees, it makes sense. Over the years Horizon has become less and less independent of Alaska. Having all of Horizon’s flying fall under a capacity purchase agreement beginning this year was, I think, the final step that made Horizon like most other regional carriers. Considering that tickets are booked through Alaska, I think this is logical from a brand consistency sense. At least some of the unique features of Horizon, like free beer, will be sticking around.

Another interesting change at Horizon is that the CRJ-700s will be going away for good this year. That’s not entirely shocking because it’s been planned to eventually eliminate that fleet, but now we have a more specific timeline to play with.

Back in 2010, Horizon said in an SEC filing that it had “entered into an agreement to dispose of eight CRJ-700 aircraft in the first half of 2011 through either sublease or lease assignment to a third-party carrier.”

Now, in an investor update filed today, Horizon says that it will remove all thirteen CRJ-700s this year, four of which will be removed this quarter. ”These aircraft will be either be, leased, subleased, or assigned to a third party,” says Horizon.

Worthy of note is that previously Horizon had said it had “accelerated the delivery of the eight remaining Q400 aircraft on order to 2011 to coincide with the anticipated exit dates of the CRJ-700 aircraft.” That would keep the fleet at the same size in terms of numbers of aircraft with the previously CRJ retirements, but with the changes announced today the Horizon fleet will actually shrink slightly this year.

Anyway, interesting stuff at Horizon going on. Alaska also made some news today with an order for 13 737-900ERs, and I’ll be getting to that later.

Alaska Doubles Up LA – Mexico City

Published
by
Dan Webb
on August 18, 2010
in Alaska
. 0 Comments

I first heard Alaska was boosting it’s LA – Mexico City service last week from the always-informative Airline Route blog, and I wanted to share a couple of thoughts. The airline will be adding a second daily flight beginning this October.

I decided to ask Alaska about this move. They said when they launched this route back in 2005, they had two flights, but dropped the second in 2007.

So what’s changed? I was told that demand has been improving due to a stronger economy and that the whole swine flu crisis has now blown over.

I decided to look at the T100 data for the route – the latest month available was February so I compared that to 2009. And as you can see, a boost in traffic really helped loads, with flat capacity. (The only reason I can think of for the 30 seat capacity difference is that Alaska has two 737-800 configurations.)

I was also wondering if Mexicana’s financial troubles had anything to do with the move. Alaska tells me that it does help create an opportunity, but it wasn’t one of the primary reasons since that situation is very much in flux right now.

Right now, Mexicana is scheduled to operate 30 weekly flights from Los Angeles to Mexico City, which is eight less than in July.

So this seems like a good move – expanding as a route that is seeing better performance while taking advantage of a competitor’s weakness.

Plus, this looks great from a utilization perspective – the outbound operates as a redeye and returns to LAX the next morning, and I suspect the aircraft wouldn’t just been sitting otherwise.

Alaska Announces Bellingham-Honolulu

Published
by
Dan Webb
on August 3, 2010
in Alaska and Allegiant
. 15 Comments

Yesterday, Alaska announced that the carrier is set to launch daily service from Bellingham to Honolulu with 737-800s.

The first word that popped into my head was “Allegiant.” And I’m sure many others had the exact same thought – this announcement could be a preemptive move in response to Allegiant’s plan to enter the Hawaiian market. It does seem logical that Alaska would want to protect its Hawai’i operations from the Pacific Northwest that have been significantly built up over the past few years.

Of course, Allegiant hasn’t announced any Hawaiian routes yet, but that’s just my read on this one. Alaska’s listing of all the amenities included in the fare – like online reservations – seems like a direct shot at Allegiant. And Alaska hasn’t been afraid to go head-to-head with Allegiant in the past. More importantly, Allegiant has expressed interest in Bellingham already, if we look at this summary of a presentation given by an Allegiant executive.

Regardless of if this is a preemptive move against Allegiant or not, I’m not sure how well this one will work. That Allegiant presentation contains Hawai’i Tourism Authority data that estimates 11,271 visitors came from the Bellingham area in 2009. That comes out to about 216 travelers per week. That number makes the market appear to be a perfect fit for Allegiant’s potential non-daily service. I really do wonder if Alaska’s slated 1,099 weekly seats are a bit excessive.

Of course, the existence of a nonstop could help boost demand, but I’m just wondering if Alaska’s being a bit heavy-handed here to fend off Allegiant.

Either way, if this is truly Alaska expressing concern about Allegiant, then we’re in for an exciting few months as Allegiant continues to prepare  for its Hawai’i service.

EDIT: As has been pointed out to me in the comments, I am neglecting the possibility of Vancouver metro residents making the drive down and adding more passengers. It’s a fair point. Right now Air Canada and WestJet are each flying to Honolulu nonstop from there, with 767-300s and 737-800s, respectively. I’d be interested in knowing how much of Alaska’s and Allegiant’s Vegas traffic comes from Canada. Despite that factor I still find the move a bit on the aggressive side. I’m interested in seeing Alaska’s fares on the route and how they compare to the Canadian competitors.

Alaska Decides to Hop Into St. Louis

Published
by
Dan Webb
on June 18, 2010
in Alaska
. 4 Comments

It was very interesting to see Alaska announce yesterday that they would be hopping on the Seattle – St. Louis route late this September. For awhile, it was one of the few routes off-hub routes that American was holding onto as TWA’s hub in St. Louis has been dismantled. But the airline is dumping that in August.

In May, Southwest, who has been building up its focus city operation in STL, decided to give the route a shot. But they’re dropping it as well, though the carrier has said it should probably be coming back next summer.

With no nonstop service left, it seemed to make sense for Alaska to give this one a shot. Besides, they’ve been selling traffic on this route for awhile through a codeshare with American. In fact, yields booking nonstop flights from Seattle to St. Louis through Alaska were 6.56% higher than those who booked through American, for what it’s worth. Perhaps with Alaksa’s brand loyalty in Seattle they think they can make this work.

Speaking of American, Alaska tells me they’d be interesting in having American place their code on the flight but nothing’s been officially set up yet.

On a side note – I wonder how many people on this route are Boeing employees?

Meanwhile, in an attempt to build up loyalty, Southwest just launched a double credit promotion out of St. Louis.

Alaska and Icelandair to Codeshare

Published
by
Dan Webb
on May 6, 2010
in Alaska and Icelandair
. 1 Comment

When Icelandair announced Seattle service a little over a year ago, the airline said it would be working “in cooperation with Alaska Airlines,” but we haven’t heard a thing since. But that’s now changed with Alaska and sister airline Horizon asking the DOT for authorization to codeshare with Icelandair starting on June 1, according to a regulatory filing.

So, how will this work? Well, passengers will fly on Icelandair’s Seattle route (which now has a fifth frequency), and then connect on Alaska/Horizon. The initial destinations are San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Portland, San Diego, Las Vegas, Spokane, Anchorage, Vancouver, Calgary, and Victoria. Icelandair mentioned Edmonton and Kelowna in its press release last year, but apparently those aren’t happening (yet). Anyway, a good way for Icelandair to expand its reach in the United States. Back in the mid-90s Icelandair had a partnership with Southwest out of Baltimore, though it was short-lived.

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
. 6 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 737-700 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:

jan181

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.

nov18_2

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.)

nov18_3

Click above to enlarge.

nov18_4

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.

nov11

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.