vagabond

By HARRY R. WEBER
AP Airlines Writer

ATLANTA — The parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air did what several of its larger rivals couldn't in the first three months of the year: turn a profit.

But fuel prices have risen sharply compared to a year ago, and Alaska Air Group Inc. wasn't immune. It said Thursday it is raising its fee for a first checked bag by $5.

Alaska Air Group, based in Seattle, said it earned $5.3 million, or 15 cents a share, in the first quarter, compared to a loss of $19.2 million, or 53 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding special items, its profit was 36 cents a share in the latest quarter.
Revenue rose 11.8 percent to $829.9 million from $742.4 million a year earlier.
Analysts expected an adjusted profit of 35 cents a share on revenue of $816.4 million.

The carrier's low costs and largely domestic focus helped it weather the economic downturn and put it in a good position to capitalize on the ongoing rebound.

However, the parent company said it paid $207.3 million for aircraft fuel in the first quarter, compared to $157.7 million a year earlier. That was a 31.5 percent increase year-over-year.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air announced Thursday changes to several service fees that are effective for travel on or after June 16 for tickets purchased beginning May 1.

Alaska and Horizon will charge $20 for each of a passenger's first three checked bags. That is a $5 increase for the first checked bag, a $5 decrease for the second, and a $30 decrease for the third. Some customers remain exempt from fees for the first two checked bags, including elite frequent fliers and first-class passengers.

The two airlines also are lowering fees for unaccompanied minors and changing their baggage service guarantee from 25 minutes to 20 minutes. Customers whose luggage is not at baggage claim within 20 minutes after their flight parks at the gate will receive their choice of 2,000 Alaska Airlines frequent flier reward miles or $20 off a future flight.

The airlines said that customers who want to change their flight within six hours of departure will pay a $25 same-day confirmed fee, if space is available on the requested flight. Those wishing to change their flight outside of that six-hour window must pay the difference in fare plus any applicable change fee.

Under the previous policy, these customers could pay this $25 same-day confirmed fee or stand by for free.

Also, effective May 12, customers will no longer be able to hold reservations for 24 hours without payment when booking directly with Alaska or Horizon. The airlines will, however, offer customers one free change or a full refund within 24 hours of purchase on all tickets.

JDFlyer

Nicely done Alaska!

But the title to the article quoted above is "Alaska Air sees BLACK in 1Q, while rivals see RED"

In the red . . . means LOSING money.

In the black . . . means MAKING money.

Lighteningspeed

Alaska along with most other major airlines have lost money and will continue to lose even more if the oil price keeps going up. Oil price is expected to continue to go up which is really a bad news for airlines. And now with the cancellation of flights into and out of Europe for the past week have cost airlines on both side of the Atlantic roughly $1 billion. Read DAL lost $12 million a day this past week due to cancellations. Limited flights resumed yesterday.

FL410

And holy cow... Is there some actual growth at AAG in the end of summer and winter??? They probably have hidden that we are going to pull out of markets to cover the newly anounced routes.

Customers planning a warm weather vacation will have more flight options this year, thanks to new service by Alaska Airlines to Hawaii and Mexico. In addition to new revenue, the flights will reduce schedule seasonality, with the added fall, winter and spring flying helping to counterbalance summer operations.

Horizon Air will add service between San Jose and Los Angeles to strengthen international connections with the airlines’ alliance partners.

Alaska Airlines
Daily year-round flights will start between San Diego and Maui, beginning Oct. 1. Daily seasonal service between San Diego and Puerto Vallarta begins Nov. 12. The airline will also expand flights to Hawaii out of Portland, with four-times weekly seasonal service to Kona, commencing Nov. 12. And Alaska will add a second flight between Seattle and Kona that will operate thrice-weekly from Nov. 11 to April 10, 2011.

“Hawaii and Mexico are among the most popular leisure destinations that Alaska and Horizon serve,” said Joe Sprague, vice president of marketing. “This winter we’ll have 101 roundtrips per week to the four major Hawaiian Islands. And we’re offering low fares and Alaska Airlines Vacations packages to make Hawaii travel even more affordable.”

Alaska Airlines is offering introductory one-way fares of $159 on tickets purchased by
May 4 for travel through Feb. 11, 2011, on all Portland and San Diego flights to Hawaii. Tickets for flights between San Diego and Puerto Vallarta will be available for purchase after the new service is approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Mexico Director General of Civil Aviation.

Alaska Airlines Hawaii service: Peak Nov.-April # Flights/Week
HNL OGG KOA LIH TOTAL
SEA 14 14 10 7 45
PDX 7 7 4 - 18
ANC 7 3 - - 10
OAK - 4 3 - 7
SJC - 3 4 - 7
SMF - 7 - - 7
SAN - 7 - - 7
TOTAL 28 45 21 7 101
To support the new Hawaii flying, Alaska Airlines plans to convert seven of its 737-800 aircraft for ETOPS operations. This means Alaska will have 33 ETOPS jets in its fleet of 55 737-800s by year’s end. Twenty of these aircraft will have been converted to ETOPS in-house by the airline’s technicians. The three- to four-day process involves ensuring the aircraft’s critical systems are modified to the required standards for reliability. This includes installing dual high-frequency radios for long range communications and upgrading onboard avionics, provisioning the passenger cabin with life rafts and other safety equipment, adding ETOPS placards to the nose gear door, putting flower lei decals on the tail, and more.

New San Jose-Los Angeles service
Horizon Air will add four daily roundtrip flights between San Jose and Los Angeles, starting Aug. 23. The new service is timed for convenient connections to domestic and international destinations on Alaska Airlines’ alliance partners Air France, Air Pacific, American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Delta, KLM, Korean Air, LAN and Qantas.

“With four roundtrip flights a day between San Jose and Los Angeles, our customers will benefit from more convenient international connections to Asia, Mexico, Europe, and Central and South America, and Australia,” said Andrew Harrison, vice president of planning and revenue management.

Travelers can earn double Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles on the new flights between San Jose and Los Angeles through Nov. 23. To qualify, customers must register at alaskaair.com.

Summary of new flights
San Diego-Hawaii service:
Date City pair Departs Arrives Frequency
Oct 1 San Diego-Maui 9:20 a.m. 12:10 p.m. Daily
Oct 1 Maui-San Diego 1:10 p.m. 9:35 p.m. Daily

San Diego-Mexico service*:

Nov 12–Apr 11 San Diego-Puerto Vallarta 10:15 a.m. 2:55 p.m. Daily*

Nov 12–Apr 11 Puerto Vallarta-San Diego 3:40 p.m. 4:35 p.m. Daily*

*Subject to government approval.

Portland-Hawaii service:

Sep 20 Portland-Honolulu 7:25 a.m. 10:25 a.m. Daily
Sep 20 Honolulu-Portland 11:25 a.m. 8:10 p.m. Daily
Nov 12–Apr 9 Portland-Kona 5:10 p.m. 8 p.m. Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat
Nov 12–Apr 9 Kona-Portland 9 a.m 5:35 p.m. Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat

Seattle-Hawaii service:
Nov 11–Apr 7 Seattle-Kona* 5:10 p.m. 8:09 p.m. Tues, Thur, Sun

Nov 14–Apr 10 Kona-Seattle* 9 a.m. 5:45 p.m. Tues, Thur, Sun

*In addition to current daily Seattle-Kona service
All times are based on local time zones.

San Jose-Los Angeles service:

Aug 23 San Jose-Los Angeles 7:25 a.m. 8:40 a.m. Daily
Aug 23 San Jose-Los Angeles 9:40 a.m. 10:55 a.m. Daily
Aug 23 San Jose-Los Angeles 3:20 p.m. 4:35 p.m. Daily
Aug 23 San Jose-Los Angeles 6:55 p.m. 8:10 p.m. Daily
Aug 23 Los Angeles-San Jose 8 a.m. 9:10 a.m. Daily
Aug 23 Los Angeles-San Jose 1:25 p.m. 2:35 p.m. Daily
Aug 23 Los Angeles-San Jose 5 p.m. 6:10 p.m. Daily
Aug 23 Los Angeles-San Jose 9:05 p.m. 10:15 p.m. Daily


PS Talked with a big wig yesterday and and he said that next year LAX is the focus city (like PDX this year) and to expect more CA fly oppertunities. And for all wanting to know for the 8 recalls at QX it went 14 deep.

iPilot

Expensive fuel is a problem but it's all relative. I wonder what the airlines of the 1950s would think if they had to pay even $50/barrel for fuel. The fact is that fuel prices WILL rise going into the future. Until we develop airplanes that run on dreams and starlight that's just how it's going to be regardless if we fill them up with biofuel, dinofuel, or nuclear reactors. The question we need to ask is how do we deal with it? Just losing money or asking for pay concessions is not an acceptable answer because it's only a temporary solution.

tone

No way! Green! It's the new black! Also, stay tuned for solar-powered jets!

Thrill

East to West service only....at 1000 mph.