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The airline traces its roots to McGee Airways, which flew its inaugural service between Anchorage and Bristol Bay in 1932 with a single-engined, three-passenger aircraft. Mergers and acquisitions produced changes in the name and saw business expand throughout Alaska and the USA. The name Alaska Airlines was adopted in 1944. Alaska's sister (and wholly owned) airline, Horizon Air, was founded in 1981 to serve communities using routes vacated by larger airlines after the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. In 1985, Alaska Air Group was formed as a holding company for Alaska Airlines. A year later the holding company acquired Horizon Air and Jet America Airlines, which merged into Alaska Airlines in 1987. The airline employs 10,040 staff (at January 2005).

Incidents and accidents

On September 4, 1971, Alaska Airlines Flight 1866, a Boeing 727-193 crashed into a mountain while on approach to Juneau, Alaska, after receiving misleading navigational information. All seven crew members and 104 passengers were killed.

On January 31, 2000, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 plunged into the Pacific Ocean near Point Mugu, California shortly before attempting an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport en route from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco and Seattle, killing all 88 people on board. In its final report, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined the cause of the accident to be failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew acme nut threads due to insufficient lubrication of the jackscrew assembly by Alaska Airlines. NTSB further determined that the insufficient lubrication resulted from Alaska's extended lubrication and inspection intervals and from the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) approval of those intervals. NTSB also found that the lack of a fail-safe mechanism for the failure of the acme nut threads on the MD-80 design contributed to the accident. This incident, along with the earlier ValuJet crash, led to closer FAA oversight of airline maintenance operations.

December 26, 2005: Flight 536, which was headed from Seattle, WA to Burbank, CA was forced to make an emergency landing. The cause was a foot-long hole in the fuselage, which caused the plane to lose cabin pressure. According to NTSB spokesman Jim Struhsaker, a baggage claim handler has admitted failing to immediately report bumping the plane at the gate with a baggage cart or baggage-belt machine. The Associated Press quotes Stuhsaker saying "The bump created a crease in the plane's aluminum skin, which opened up into a 12- by 6-inch gash as the plane came under increased pressure at 26,000 feet."[1]

Services

Alaska's route system spans more than 80 cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. From 1991 to 1998 the airline also served the Russian Far East.

Alaska's reputation for outstanding service has earned it high marks from sources such as Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler magazines. The airline is considered an early adopter of technology, and was the first to sell tickets on their own website, allow web check-in, and install self check-in kiosks at airports.

Alaska has historically been one of the largest carriers on the US west coast as well as to and within the State of Alaska, with strong presences in Seattle, Portland, the Bay Area and the Los Angeles Metro Area (all five airports). In about 2000, Alaska began providing long-haul routes to the East Coast. It currently offers nonstop service from Seattle to Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Newark, Orlando, and Washington, DC; in addition to service between Anchorage and Chicago and Denver. From LAX, they have extensive services to Mexico as well as to Washington, DC. The following cities in Mexico are currently served from LAX (and a few of them are also operated from San Francisco and Seattle on a seasonal basis): La Paz, Loreto, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Manzanillo, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Guadalajara, Mexico City and Cancun. Alaska also serves Vancouver from Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle, as well as Calgary from Los Angeles and Seattle. In 2003, the airline was granted a slot exemption by the US Congress to operate nonstop flights from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to Los Angeles. Also Alaska Airlines is in talks with the FAA to begin long-haul oceanic flights. Alaska could be adding flights between Seattle and Honolulu and Maui and Seattle and cities in Central America.

Alaska Airlines' regional carrier, Horizon Air, is closely integrated into Alaska's operations, with Alaska and Horizon sharing many routes. Alaska and Horizon are owned by the same parent company, Alaska Air Group.

Affinity programs

Destinations

Fleet

The Alaska Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of September, 2006):

Alaska operates a fleet of Boeing 737 and MD-80 (under McDonnell Douglas when purchased or leased) jets which is one of the youngest among all major airlines. The airline ultimately plans to replace all MD-80 aircraft with Boeing 737-800s by the end of 2008. Alaska was the launch customer for the 737-900 stretch variant and also uses 737-400, 737-700 and 737-800 throughout its system, plus 737-200 Combination passenger/cargo (Combi) within the state of Alaska and to Seattle. Starting in June, 2006 Alaska began modifying some of its 737-400's to all-cargo or cargo-passenger configuration to replace its fleet of 737-200 Combi aircraft.

On 15 June 2005, Alaska ordered 35 Boeing 737-800 aircraft worth $2.3 billion (at list prices) plus options for 15 additional aircraft and purchase rights for another 50, making it one of the largest orders for the 737-800. The first of these aircraft was delivered in January 2006, with deliveries scheduled to continue for the next six years (ref: Air International, July 2005).

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