Alaska Air Group

Alaska Air Group Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: ALK DJTA Component S&P 500 Component
Industry	Transportation
Founded	1985
Headquarters	SeaTac, WA, United States
Area served	United States
Key people	Brad Tilden (CEO, President & Chairman of the Board)
Services	Airline Services
Revenue	US$5.931 Billion (2016)[1]
Operating income	US$1.349 Billion (2016)
Net income	US$814 Million (2016)
Total assets	US$9.977 Billion (2016)
Total equity	US$2.931 Billion (2016)
Number of employees	15,000 (2015)[2]
Subsidiaries	Alaska Airlines Horizon Air Virgin America
Website	alaskaair.com

Alaska Air Group Inc. is an airline holding company based in SeaTac, Washington. It owns three certificated airlines operating in the United States: Alaska Airlines,^[3] Horizon Air and Virgin America.^[4]

History

Headquarters for Alaska Air Group

It was formed in 1985 and acquired Horizon Air and Jet America Airlines the next year. Jet America Airlines was merged into Alaska Airlines in 1987.

Alaska Air Group subsidiaries had 14,710 employees in 2007,^[5] 14,143 in 2008^[6] and 12,440 in 2009.^[7] On December 31, 2011, Alaska Air Group has 12,806 employees (9,640 at Alaska Airlines and 3,166 at Horizon Air), compared to 12,039 (9,013 at Alaska Airlines and 3,202 at Horizon Air) on December 31, 2010.^[8][9] Alaska Airlines operates only U.S. built Boeing aircraft with up to 181 seats while Horizon operates only Canadian built Bombardier Aerospace aircraft with up to 76 seats.^[10]

In 2011, Alaska Air Group replaced the AMR Corporation in the Dow Jones Transportation Average.^[11]

On December 14, 2016, Alaska Air Group completed its acquisition of Virgin America.^[12] The total price for the acquisition was approximately $2.6 billion. Until 2019, Alaska Air Group will continue to operate Alaska Airlines and Virgin America as separate airlines and will continue to honor the loyalty programs of both groups.^[13] On March 22, 2017 the company announced that Alaska Air Group will merge Virgin America and Alaska Airlines. The airline will operate under the Alaska Airlines brand and is expected to be fully merged in 2019. ^[14]

Ownership

As of 2017 Alaska Air Group shares are mainly held by institutional investors (T. Rowe Price, The Vanguard Group and others^[15])

Operations

Fleet

As of April 2016, Alaska Airlines' fleet consisted of 153 jet aircraft while Horizon Air's fleet consisted of 52 turboprop aircraft.^[8] With the Virgin acquisition and ongoing merger, the combined fleet under Alaska Air Group's management numbers 286 aircraft.^[16]

Alaska Air Group has created a new branding identity for its Horizon Air subsidiary and any other independently owned and separately directed affiliate regional airlines it chooses to contract to do regional flying business into markets too limited to be flown only on Alaska Airlines mainline equipment. Among the other airlines now sub-contracted to do additional flying for the Alaska Air Group are; SkyWest, Inc.'s, SkyWest Airlines whose Canadair CRJ-700 aircraft dedicated to providing service for the Alaska Air Group are painted in a very similar manner to Alaska Horizon's. SkyWest's fleet however, are branded Alaska SkyWest to differentiate that airline's aircraft from those of Horizon Air.

Route network

Through its two principal airline subsidiaries, Alaska Air Group services the passenger and cargo markets of the Pacific Northwest with its extensive route network hub through the cities of Seattle and Portland. After the demise of Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines in 2008, the Alaska Air Group has expanded heavily centering on Hawaii and other non-airline hub secondary mainland cities and airports.^[17]

On April 4, 2016, Alaska Air Group announced plans to acquire Virgin America, pending approval from US government regulators and Virgin America shareholders.^[18]

References

External links

• • Business data for Alaska Air Group: Google Finance
  • Yahoo! Finance
  • Reuters
  • SEC filings

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air.