Alaska Airlines

**Alaska Airlines** is a major United States airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area of the state of Washington. It is the fifth-largest airline in the United States when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and number of destinations served. Alaska, together with its regional partners, operates a large domestic route network, primarily focused on connecting cities on the West Coast of the United States to over one hundred destinations in the contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Alaska Airlines is not a member of any of the three major airline alliances. However, it has codeshare agreements with 17 airlines, including member airlines of OneWorld, SkyTeam, Star Alliance, and unaffiliated airlines. Regional service is operated by sister airline Horizon Air and independent carrier SkyWest Airlines.

The airline operates its largest hub at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, and it also operates hubs in Anchorage, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco and focus cities at San Diego and San Jose.

## History

The airline traces its roots to McGee Airways, which was started by Linious "Mac" McGee in 1932. The airline flew its inaugural service between Anchorageand Bristol Bay with a Stinson single-engined, three-passenger aircraft. At the time, there were no scheduled flights; a flight took place when there were passengers or a load of cargo or mail.

It was the middle of the Great Depression and the airline was struggling financially. There were too many airlines in Anchorage at the time, and not enough demand to support them. In the next few years the airline performed many mergers and acquisitions that produced changes in the name and saw business expand throughout Alaska. The first of these mergers was in 1934, when McGee sold his namesake airline for US$50,000 to Star Air Service, an airline also located in Anchorage. This allowed McGee to enter the mining industry. With a fleet of fifteen aircraft, Star Air Service was a dominant airline in Alaska. But Star continued to struggle financially because of high maintenance costs for its wooden planes.

In 1937, McGee came back to the airline and opened a liquor store, and the airline began flying liquor to remote Alaskan communities. That year, Star Air Service purchased Alaska Interior Airlines and was incorporated as **Star Air Lines**. Star was again sold later that year to a group of miners.

In 1938, federal regulation began when Congress created the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). The CAB awarded the airline most of the routes that it wanted in Alaska, but the coveted route between Seattle and Anchorage was awarded to Pan American Airways.

In 1941, Star Air Service was purchased by Raymond Marshall, a businessman from New York. In 1942, the airline purchased three other airlines in Alaska, Lavery Air Service, Mirow Air Service, and Pollack Flying Service as well as a hangar at the Anchorage airport. That year, the airline's name was changed to **Alaska Star Airlines**.[11] The name **Alaska Airlines** was adopted on May 2, 1944, having narrowly beaten a competitor who was also applying for the name.[8] In the 1940s Alaska's headquarters were in Anchorage.[12]

When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Alaska Airlines faced a shortage of pilots. During the war, the airline lacked funds and equipment, and pilots were often forced to buy fuel for their planes out of their own pockets. The company, which was frequently subjected to lawsuits, also went through many different presidents during this time. In 1943, Alaska Airlines purchased the Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar, its first multi-engine aircraft. That same year the company's stock was traded for the very first time on the American Stock Exchange

## Merger with Virgin America

On April 4, 2016, Alaska Air Group announced it would acquire Virgin America, an airline based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. With Virgin America operating hubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the merger greatly expands the presence of Alaska Airlines in California and the West Coast.

To mark the acquisition of Virgin America, a number of aircraft received special liveries. One was of an Airbus A321neo originally destined for Virgin America, advertises Alaska Airlines' dominating West Coast presence. this livery has since been repainted into the normal Alaska Airlines colors on February 2020.

Alaska Air Group purchased Virgin America for $57 per share, a total valuation of $2.6 billion, with additional expenses bringing the cost to approximately $4 billion. The acquisition was completed on December 14, 2016.

The United States Department of Transportation issued a single operating certificate for a combined Alaska Airlines and Virgin America on January 11, 2018. The airlines merged into the same passenger service system on April 25, 2018, meaning that most of the customer-facing portions of the company (including flight numbers, website, mobile apps, and airport check-in kiosks) have a single brand: Alaska Airlines. Alaska expects to have the Virgin America brand fully retired in 2019.

The acquisition did present one major issue for the Alaska Air Group: while Alaska operates an all-Boeing 737 fleet of aircraft, Virgin America operated an all-Airbus fleet. Even though the 737 and A320 family jets are designed to operate in the same segment - short-to-medium-range segment of up to 200 passengers - in terms of operation, those two jets are very different - the Boeing fleet uses the yoke for control, while the Airbus aircraft use a sidestick. As a result, anyone wishing to change from a 737 to an A320 family jet needs to go through a lengthy training course to get to grips with the aircraft, which is extremely costly and time wasting process for the airline. One of the first Airbus leases expired in 2019 with more expired in 2020.

On May 24th 2019 N922VA a A321neo formerly owned by Virgin America, was the last aircraft to have the Virgin America Livery. it left to Victorville California Logistics Airport as Alaska Flight 9514 to be repainted in Alaska Airlines colors. N922VA was also the first A321neo to be delivered to Virgin America

## Other Notes

When Alaska bought Virgin America they originally had Airbus A320neo orders but in 2021 they changed the order for additional Boeing 737-MAX 9s due to wanting to be a All-Boeing operator. by 2029 Alaska will retire the Airbus A321neos that they got from the Virgin America merger.