Alaska Airlines

Whenever the history of commercial aviation is written, people ask how an obscure little airline in America's hinterland has continued to survive and thrive while once-proud giants disappeared. Grit and determination will be part of the answer. However, more than that, it's the Alaska Airlines teams—their caring, resourcefulness, integrity, professionalism, and spirit—the unique spirit of the Great Land where Alaska was born.

Alaska Airlines is a major American airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area. It is one of the largest airlines in the United States, measured by fleet size, number of scheduled passengers carried, and number of destinations served. Alaska, together with its regional partners Horizon Air and SkyWest Airlines, with more than 44+ million customers a year, route system spans over 115+ destinations and 4 countries: it operates a large domestic route network, primarily focused on connecting from the Pacific Northwest, West Coast, and Alaska to over one hundred destinations in the contiguous United States, Hawaii, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, and Mexico. 

Alaska Airlines is a member of Oneworld, a global airline alliance established in 1999.

The airline has codeshare agreements with the following carriers: Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Condor Flugdienst, El Al, Emirates, Fiji Airways, Finnair, Hainan Airlines, Icelandair, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, LATAM, Qantas, Ravn Alaska, Singapore Airlines.
 

The airline operates out of five hubs, with its primary hub being at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport.

Alaska Airlines’ slogan is ‘Fly smart. Land happy’.

The airline’s frequent-flyer program is the Mileage Plan, which allows its members to collect and redeem "miles".

First-class passengers are served with luxury seating with spacious legroom and priority boarding at check-ins, these are just a few of Alaska's favourite things.

Premium-class passengers deserve more space—treat yourself to Premium Class.

As of July 2024, Alaska Airlines commercial fleet comprising 324 aircraft:
 

• 238 Boeing;
   
• 86 Embraer;

Alaska Airlines traces its roots back to 1932 when two companies started flying in Anchorage: McGee Airways and Star Air Service.

Early in the year, Harvey Barnhill and Linious “Mac” McGee founded Barnhill & McGee Airways. It became McGee Airways a few months later, solely owned and operated by Mac McGee.

At nearly the same time, Star Air Service was formed when mine owner Wesley "Earl" Dunkle loaned money to pilots Steve Mills, Charlie Ruttan, and Jack Waterworth. Initially just a flight school, Star Air Service commercial operations began in earnest in 1933. In 1935, Mac McGee sold his airline’s assets to Star Air Service, but would later return to manage Star Air Service twice.

After several more mergers, where many more carriers were woven into the fabric of the company, the Star Air Service name was changed a couple of times—until 1944, when they found one that stuck: Alaska Airlines, the name which is used today.

Alaska has grown in leaps and bounds over the years. In 2001, the airline opened up the East Coast with its new service to Washington D.C. Since then Alaska has established major footholds in the other cities on the East Coast and Midwest. More recently, the airline has further west flying across the Pacific with a new service to Hawaii.

Alaska also pioneered technologies and customer innovations that make the travel experience easier. Alaska was the first airline in North America to sell tickets online and the first in the world to allow customers to check in and print boarding passes via the Internet.

 Alaska has blazed trails in navigation technology too, allowing them to fly into fog-shrouded Juneau, Alaska, and airspace-restricted Washington, D.C., with equal precision.

In December 2016, Virgin America was acquired by Alaska Airlines to create the West Coast’s premier airline. The two airlines were granted a single operating certificate by the FAA in 2018 and now operate as a single airline under the Alaska brand.