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Alaska returns to Bellingham

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Great Alaska article......

Alaska Airlines boss: Fees basically up to customers
Friday, April 10, 2009
AMY HSUAN -- The Oregonian Staff

Over the past eight years, the U.S. airline industry has flown through some nasty weather: terrorist attacks, new security measures, sky-high fuel prices and now a recession that's grounded business and leisure travelers.

Brad Tilden might be Alaska Airlines' fresh-faced president of four months, but he's no stranger to the airline business, with 18 years as chief financial officer among other titles.

Alaska Airlines, along with sister company Horizon Air, flies more passengers out of Portland than any other airline. Last year, more than 5 million passengers flew out of PDX on either an Alaska or Horizon flight, giving the airline nearly 35 percent of the Portland market.

But in the cutthroat world of airline competition, Alaska is trying to find new revenue streams and ways to cut costs. In 2008, the company reported a net loss of $135.9 million, which has spurred the airline to take dramatic measures such as going to an all-737 fleet and finding other ways to save fuel.

We caught up with Tilden on Thursday, when he addressed business leaders at a breakfast hosted by the Portland Business Journal. His answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Last year, air travelers saw a host of new fees, from baggage to blankets. Airlines blamed high fuel costs for the added charges. Now that fuel prices are coming down, are you going to get rid of the extra fees?

We are slow to make any moves on that. Our thinking is that customers will ultimately decide whether they want a la carte pricing, or if they want it all-in-one. Customers will ultimately tell us if they want lower fares and then to pay extra for the things they want, or if they want the fare to include it all. We are thinking through the notion of a first bag fee, and have been going back and forth for some time. This could play out for the next two to three years. The important thing about fees is that the customer feels as though they got something for it.

We've seen the auto industry go through a major overhaul with the consumer demanding greener cars. Do you see airplanes and the airline industry making a similar effort to become more green?

I think we'll be working with airplane manufacturers on becoming more efficient. If you look at us today, we have an entirely 737 fleet. Horizon operates entirely on the Q400 airplane. Those are some of the most fuel-efficient planes in the world. We're retrofitting our planes with winglets and reducing the amount of water we bring on board.

The airline industry has been trying to find a workable business model for the past decade. For the legacy airlines like United and American, that's meant the hub-and-spoke model. Where do you see Alaska going?

We do flow traffic through hubs, but we have four of them: Seattle, Anchorage, Portland and Los Angeles. We do have more of a point-to-point focus and are interested in commanding market share for those segments. We'd like to develop the Portland market more, and we do have to compete with the low-cost carriers. The analogy we like to use is that of Costco. If a customer buys a widescreen TV at Costco, they're not questioning the price. That's where we want to be.

Do you see Alaska taking on more international flights?

Probably not. We fly to Canada and Mexico. And we just launched flights from Portland to Hawaii. But international is not our thing. We don't have the right airplanes, and we are trying to keep things simple for now. Flights to and within Alaska make up about 25 percent of our business. We do better northbound to Alaska than up and down the West Coast.

What was the impact of the eruption of Mount Redoubt in Alaska on your business?

We canceled a lot of flights and probably lost a few million dollars. But we worry more about passengers than sweating money. We have $1 billion in cash on hand, which is way higher than other airlines. We try to build a very rugged company for those kinds of events.



Bye Bye---General Lee
 
It's so funny to me how you guys are so quick to insult pilots who make less money than you, but you never complain about the thousands of pilots who fly for legacy/major carriers who compete directly with you and take millions of dollars away from your company. There has NEVER been a single airline in the history of US aviation that took a pay cut based on competitors wages. That Jet Blue story is a crock of sh!t and a lie. Look it up!
The reason they took pay cuts was 100% because of the reduced passenger loads after 9/11 and the fact the company couldn't make money due to direct competition from the larger airlines. They're just lucky the judge didn't order a pay scale matching the regionals.
The only time any pilot group has ever gotten their pay cut was when they were posting losses and in bankruptcy.
Allegiant is making money, and they are increasing wages. If they ever go union, it will be their choice and not anyone else's. If they ever grow large enough to require a union, then you'll really have some serious competition.
 
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How's that view with your head in the sand, Daytona? Better revisit the bankruptcy filings for UAL, USAir and DAL.

Get back to us.
 
How's that view with your head in the sand, Daytona? Better revisit the bankruptcy filings for UAL, USAir and DAL.

Get back to us.

Head in the sand? Fubijaaker, you ignore any question that requires you to answer specific questions about the state of your own house! It's because you can't defend your own predicament without completely invalidating your entire argument! You need to refocus your attention and efforts...but that would require some personal accountability! It's easier to blame others for your mess!
 
There are no questions about "my house" that can't be answered by 30 years of arbitrated contracts under a no-strike clause. Obviously, you didn't have a clue about any of that since you mostly talk out your a$$.

But if you're goal is to finish your career at $110 an hour with no retirement, have at it. Just be aware you're taking the entire profession down with you.
 
There are no questions about "my house" that can't be answered by 30 years of arbitrated contracts under a no-strike clause. Obviously, you didn't have a clue about any of that since you mostly talk out your a$$.

But if you're goal is to finish your career at $110 an hour with no retirement, have at it. Just be aware you're taking the entire profession down with you.

Again... What were your pay and retirement benefits when your company was 8 years old? Give us some numbers so we can put them into today dollars and see how different we are/were...

Until you give us some numbers, go back to rubbing that ben-gay over your... where ever it is you old farts rub that stuff.
 
Honestly, this is the most retarded pissing contest on flightinfo in a while. who the hell knows why we're doing bli to las...and honestly, if you trounce us on the lax to medford or eugene market in an md-80, then...okay....realistcally the only reason we're doing that route, and b/c it's in a 700 i think i'm right here, is that we're trying to sell 700's, and no one will buy them, so we might as well fly them on some retarded route rather than park them all the time.

who knows, and who cares....
Mookie
 
It's so funny to me how you guys are so quick to insult pilots who make less money than you, but you never complain about the thousands of pilots who fly for legacy/major carriers who compete directly with you and take millions of dollars away from your company. There has NEVER been a single airline in the history of US aviation that took a pay cut based on competitors wages. That Jet Blue story is a crock of sh!t and a lie. Look it up!
The reason they took pay cuts was 100% because of the reduced passenger loads after 9/11 and the fact the company couldn't make money due to direct competition from the larger airlines. They're just lucky the judge didn't order a pay scale matching the regionals.
The only time any pilot group has ever gotten their pay cut was when they were posting losses and in bankruptcy.
Allegiant is making money, and they are increasing wages. If they ever go union, it will be their choice and not anyone else's. If they ever grow large enough to require a union, then you'll really have some serious competition.
I agree with the "who knows and who cares" post, but this one is factually incorrect. I know because I got to live through it. 34% pay cut and all. In fact, most everything you mentioned about our pay cut was incorrect. 1st, our contract was very specific when it talked about what the factors would be regarding our arbitrated pay rate. It mentioned numbers regarding competitors with a specific percentage of overlapping routes. It did not discriminate against bankrupt carriers. In fact, the wage matrix the arbitrator gave us was specifically what the company asked for...which was an average of narrowbody pay scales that included the likes of Frontier and Jetblue. It also included those fresh in and out of bankruptcy. So, in fact, we DID take a pay cut based on competitors wages.
2nd, we were averaging over 70% load factors and before the write offs and one time charges we were actually making money, in fact us and SWA were the only majors at the time that were making money.
I have lived this dream for quite a while and I was there. I watched all the events unfold, heard all the briefings, read all the spin, and in the end I took a 34% paycut literally over night based on competitors depressed wages, courtesy of the company and a third party "neutral" arbitraitor, all while the company was making money.
I could care less about Bellingham or whether I ever fly there, but I do care about the events in my life that are forever lifestyle changing. Your "facts" look like a slice of swiss cheese. Prepare better next time.
 
Sorry guys. But ALK still has huge support from people of the PNW. Allegiant can kiss that route goodbye. Nobody in the NW has ever heard of Allegiant, but they have heard of a little company called Alaska. Allegiatnt cant compete with ALK. Heck, SWA has had a hell of a time competing with Alaska...... And trust me, Allegiant would get KILLED if they tried to go to ANC. Just like everyone else thats tried to compete up there. Just ask Herb.

BTW... chp.. When your company doesn't make profit off pilot wages then feel free to talk smak. Unitl that time. Just keep quiet. ALK will kill you in Bellingham and you guys aren't going to fight that fight. No more layovers at the Holliday Inn Express...

HAHAHAH! Everyone I know around here, both for business and pleasure flies Southwest. This is because Alaska SUCKS. Thanks for the laugh though.
 

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