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What’s your vision for Air Group, and how do we get there?
I think we have a destiny – to be the first airlines to truly transform ourselves and break the malicious cycle of boom and bust that has plagued the industry. We’ve done a lot of great things in our history, but this is something that hasn’t yet been accomplished.
Our future should be one where we continue to grow and prosper and provide terrific service to our customers and great jobs for our people. We should do this in a way where good begets good and we get stronger as we go – reinvesting in our business, enhancing our product, making ourselves more competitive, and further reducing our vulnerability. It has to be earned through performance, but we should have a future where we are a strong, independent, Seattle-based company. And very importantly, our people should feel like this is a great place for them to use their talents. They should feel like this is fundamentally a good company and that they’re in an environment where they can do well and have rewarding and fulfilling careers. I have every confidence in the people that make up Alaska Air Group and I believe we will make this future vision a reality.
With respect to the ‘how do we get there’ part of the question, we’ll do a lot of what we’ve been doing. First, we’ll work hard and be aggressive. Second, we need to understand what it takes to win: work together, believe in each other and push Air Group to new heights. In terms of specific actions, we’ve put a lot of thought into the Five Focus Areas, and they will be a good road map for us.