Comments on: Alaska and Delta Announce Closer Ties

By: Trenton

Trenton — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:45:43 +0000

Alaska did not drop the SFO-YVR flight to free up aircraft in order to fight back against Virgin America. Alaska is not losing any market share. However, the additional aircraft time by the loss of the above market has been redirected to MSP/KOA/Mexico and two new destinations that are planned for 2009. Alaska has THE best balance sheet of all of the major players. Air Transport World even said that their balance sheet is stronger than Southwest’s! Alaska is a great airline company.

By: CF

CF — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:14:01 +0000

Yeah, sorry. I think that was the CUN flight but it got lost with all my expert cutting and pasting skills.

By: Nicholas Barnard

Nicholas Barnard — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:12:00 +0000

Oh, one other thing, Comair still has its name pretty visible on the plane, unlike the other regional carriers, so they’re in the same boat as Horizon there.

By: Nicholas Barnard

Nicholas Barnard — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:10:22 +0000

eponymous coward — I said the current Piedmont and PSA. Not the historical ones that USAir Group bought.

Yes, Horizon still flies under its own name and brand, but in may ways Horizon is just Alaska’s way of saying Alaska Express/Connection/Airlink etc… Also the Horizon brand is a very close variant of the Alaska brand. Farther than any other feeder carrier, but still a variant of the Alaska brand.

It also helps that their corporate cultures were pretty close to begin with. I recall reading an article that said that was part of the driving force behind the merger.

By: eponymous coward

eponymous coward — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:07:10 +0000

CZBB- maybe that’s SEA-CUN, but blacked out by the Caribbean? The line would go through CUN if you continued it, and AS does do that route seasonally.

By: CZBB

CZBB — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:49:00 +0000

Umm, where are you getting the AS SEA-IAH route on your map? It’s operated by CO, and then is only available on AS as part of another routing PDX-SEA-IAH for example.

As for the YVR-SFO route, AS needed the planes to try and beat back Virgin America, they canceled YVR-LAS as well

By: eponymous coward

eponymous coward — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:19:10 +0000

Also, PSA is another example of a West Coast carrier that got destroyed by an East Coast carrier (US), so once again, there’s no reason to believe that AS being acquired by any large carrier is anything but good news for OTHER airlines who want Alaska’s West Coast market share, and aren’t run by complete tools (read: WN).

By: eponymous coward

eponymous coward — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:14:58 +0000

"Pacific Southwest Airlines and Piedmont were both major carriers that merged with USAir, which became US Airways, and the corporate names were retained to protect their trademarks. However, the routes, aircraft, and other characteristics of the rebranded regional carriers bear no relation to their namesakes." From Wikipedia. Emphasis added. Whereas Horizon has been a regional carrier, from when it was founded to now. In fact, the current CEO of Alaska started out as a QX employee. Comair is closer to what Horizon is... except it's STILL using Dl branding, not it's own. Yeah, I do think keeping your corporate culture instead of being absorbed into the Borg helps.

By: Nicholas Barnard

Nicholas Barnard — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:22:01 +0000

Eponymous coward – I don’t think Horizon is a good example. To the extent Horizon is independent it is also a part of Alaska’s network. Sure they have their own branding, and some different service standards, but what makes Horizon different that the current Piedmont Airlines, PSA, or Comair?

By: eponymous coward

eponymous coward — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:25:17 +0000

A merger with Alaska would be great news… for Southwest. EVERY east-west, east coast based airline that’s merged with a West Coast airline has eventually screwed things up and given away traffic to someone else (this is gradually happening with HP/US, too, as the Vegas hub slowly dwindles away into nothing and WN eats Vegas up). I don’t see that DL has any better chance of getting it right the second time. Remember, Delta took over Western Airlines, which basically flew most of the same West Coast/MX/Alaska routes that AS does now, except they flew more out of SLC, and not quite as much in Alaska, and all that’s left behind is the SLC hub- they gave everything else away to AS and WN.

AA did much the same with Air California/Reno Air… and so on, and so forth.

Really, the ONLY way a merger makes sense is if the merger partner does with Alaska what Alaska did with Horizon: operate it as an independent entity/wholly owned subsidiary, but with their own branding, fleet, and so on. Fat chance.