We will talk about Alaska Air and the history of this airline.

Facts

Here are some facts about Alaska Airlines

• Founded
  • April 14, 1932
  • McGee Airways
• Commenced
  • June 6, 1944
• Hubs
  • Anchorage
  • Los Angels
  • Portland, OR
  • San Franciso
  • Seattle/Tacoma
• Focus Cities
  • Boise, ID
  • San Diego
  • San Jose, CA
• Frequent-flyer
  • Mileage Plan
• Alliance
  • One World
• Fleet Size
  • 299
• Destinations
  • 117
• Headquarters
  • SeaTac, Washington
    • Not in Alaska
• Employees
  • 22,918

History

It is the fifth largest in the United States, focusing on connecting the West Coast. Plus some flights to the contiguous United States plus some international places.

1941, a small airline flew between Anchorage and Bristol Bay, Alaska. The airline was called McGee Airways, and the flights were not on a schedule. They just flew when

• Cargo
• Mall
• Passengers

They needed some passage. However, during the Great Depression, there were way too many airlines in Anchorage, Alaska, and not enough people to warrant that many airlines. So, there were a few mergers. In 1934, the first merger was between McGee sold to Star Air service for $50,000. Star Air had a fleet of 15 planes. Wow. Fifteen planes in the early 30’s were pretty good.

McGee opened a liquor store, and Star Air started to fly liquor to remote Alaskan places.

Star Air bought Alaska Interior Airlines and re-branded it Star Air 

In 1941, a businessman from New York City bought Star Air Service and three others. They were

• Lavery Air Service
• Mirow Air Service
• Pollack Flying service

And a hangar in Anchorage airport. The name was changed to Alaska Star Airlines. In 1944, it was just Alaska Airlines.

During World War II, there was a shortage of Pilots; sometimes, the pilots had to pay for fuel out of their pocket.

They had a lot of lawsuits during that time.

In the 1970s, the airline came under some brutal economic hardships. However, after the deregulation of the airlines in 1979. the airline went into an expansion, which made the airline fly to ten cities in Alaska and Seattle, Washington. Now, they fly to 117 places.

Alaska Airlines did the following in the 2020s

• December 2020, agreed to buy 23 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes.
• Joined Oneworld Alliance on March 31, 2021
• November 2021, seasonal service to Belize
• August 2022,  is an investor in Twelve, Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
• October 2022, agreed to buy 52 additional Boeing 737 Maxs.
• January 2023, dropped plastic cups from inflight stuff

Destinations

Here you go

One of the largest Carriers

So they fly to a lot of places

Fleet

The Fleet for Alaska is broken down into the following:

• Mostly 737 jets
• Embracer 175 jets
  • Owned by
    • Horizon Air
    • Skywest Airlines
• They did have some Airbus planes when they took the Virgin America fleet. They are returning to an all-boeing fleet.

My Thoughts

I have flown Alaska Airlines a few times, and they are fine. The last time was in 2018, from SLC to Seattle and Settle to SLC.

We were the last ones to board flying to Seattle, my son was on crutches, and it was a pain in the butt. They almost didn’t let me board since I had too many pieces of luggage. I had my allotment and my sons. I repeatedly explained to them that he couldn’t carry his carry-on.

But the flight was good. I had no issues with them at all. Alaska is an excellent airline to fly on the West Coast.

Video

Yep, I did a video

Some of the content came from

Alaska Airlines. (2023, September 11). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines