Description
Alaska Airlines is a major American airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area. It is the fifth largest airline in the United States when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and the number of destinations served. Alaska, together with its regional partners Horizon Air and SkyWest Airlines, operate 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, Canada, Costa Rica, and Mexico.
The airline operates out of five hubs, with its primary hub being at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. Alaska Airlines is a member of Oneworld alliance, the third largest airline alliance in the world. As of 2020, the airline employs over 16,000 people and been ranked by J. D. Power and Associates as having the highest customer satisfaction of the traditional airlines for twelve consecutive years.
Destinations
Alaska's route system spans more than 115 destinations in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Some of the locations served in the carrier's namesake state include Anchorage, Adak, Barrow, Cordova, Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Kotzebue, King Salmon, Nome, Prudhoe Bay, and Sitka, several of which are inaccessible by road. The airline began scheduled operations to the Russian Far East in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union, but suspended the service in 1998 following the 1998 Russian financial crisis.
Alaska has historically been one of the largest carriers on the West Coast of the United States, with strong presences in Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, and San Diego, and serving the three major airports in the San Francisco Bay Area and four airports in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Some cities in Alaska's network with less traffic are served by regional airline partners under a capacity purchase agreement. Under that agreement, the regional airline is paid to operate and maintain aircraft used on flights that are scheduled and marketed by Alaska Airlines. Alaska's airline partners include wholly-owned regional subsidiary Horizon Air, and carriers SkyWest Airlines, and Ravn Alaska.
