Tag: Alaska Airlines

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Richard Branson gets frosty over Alaska Air

Richard Branson
Richard Branson, pretends he’s an airplane on the runway after the arrival of Virgin Atlantic’s 787-9 Dreamliner jet from London. (Virgin Atlantic Photo)

British billionaire Richard Branson kicked off Virgin Atlantic’s nonstop service from London to Seattle today with a rhetorical kiss for the Emerald City, but also a verbal kick at Seattle-based Alaska Airlines, which is absorbing another one of the airlines he founded.

First, the kiss: Branson took a star turn on the tarmac after Flight 105’s arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, surrounded by flight attendants bearing Union Jack umbrellas. Wearing blue jeans and a hometown Filson lumberjack jacket, he paid tribute to Seattle’s entrepreneurial bent.

“It’s a city after my own heart,” Branson told a crowd of VIPs and journalists assembled in the airport’s arrival hall. “Very entrepreneurial, some of the greatest entrepreneurs in the world live here.”

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Why Alaska Airlines is killing Virgin America

Virgin America and Alaska Airlines jet tails
Alaska Airlines will retire the Virgin America brand and logo by the end of 2019. (Alaska Air Photo)

It all comes down to cost and consistency of branding: That’s why Alaska Airlines announced today that it would retire the Virgin America name for the airline it acquired last year.

Seattle-based Alaska Air Group completed the $4 billion transaction (including debt and lease payments) to take over Virgin America’s operation and its routes late last year – but the question of what to do with the operation’s name had been hanging over the acquisition since it was announced last April.

“We spent the last 10 months conducting extensive research and listening carefully to what fliers on the West Coast want most,” Sangita Woerner, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of marketing, said in today’s announcement. “While the Virgin America name is beloved to many, we concluded that to be successful on the West Coast we had to do so under one name – for consistency and efficiency, and to allow us to continue to deliver low fares.”

Alaska said the Virgin America name and logo would be retired “likely sometime in 2019.” Alaska has to wait at least long enough to win certification from the Federal Aviation Administration for the two airlines to operate as a single carrier.

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Alaska Airlines kicks off daily flights to Havana

Alaska flight to Havana
A Cuban flag is propped up on an seat in Alaska Airlines’ jet for the carrier’s inaugural flight to Havana. (Alaska Airlines Photo via Twitter)

For the first time in decades, passengers got on a jet at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport that could take them all the way to Cuba’s capital – albeit with a layover in Los Angeles.

Alaska Airlines’ Flight 286 set out from Sea-Tac at 5:10 a.m. today for the Seattle-based carrier’s inaugural commercial trip to Havana. Among the dignitaries on board: King County Executive Dow Constantine and Ana Mari Cauce, the University of Washington’s Cuban-born president.

The Boeing 737-900ER jet stopped at LAX to pick up additional passengers – and give Alaska an opportunity to indulge in some Latin-flavored celebration. Then the jet took off again for the four-hour-plus flight to Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport.

Flight 286 finished up the journey at 4:57 p.m. local time. After another flurry of fanfare in Havana, the jet turned around to make Flight 287 to LAX. It was due back in Seattle in the middle of the night.

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Alaska Airlines breaks up with Delta

Alaska-Delta graphic
A graphic from happier times touted the partnership between Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines. (Alaska Airlines Graphic)

Breaking up with old flames is part of getting married, and that’s what Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines are doing in the wake of Alaska Air’s acquisition of Virgin America.

Effective May 1, Alaska and Delta will sever their frequent-flier and codeshare partnerships. After April 30, customers who belong to Delta SkyMiles won’t be able to redeem their miles in Alaska’s Mileage Plan, and vice versa.

Seattle-based Alaska said it’s making some enhancements in its mileage program, including lowering the bar for award travel and bumping up earnings for flights in business or first class. Also, starting today, Alaska Mileage Plan members can earn and redeem miles on Virgin America flights, and vice versa.

Part of the motivation for the Delta breakup has to do with the Alaska-Virgin America combination, but only part. This split has been in the works for quite some time.

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Alaska Air completes takeover of Virgin America

Alaska-Virgin branded plane
An Alaska Airlines jet sports a paint job that pays homage to Virgin America’s red color scheme as it taxis at San Francisco International Airport. (Boeing Airplanes Photo via Twitter)

Alaska Air Group completed its acquisition of Virgin America today, celebrating the rise of the nation’s No. 5 air carrier with a co-branded jet painted in blue, purple and red.

“Alaska Airlines and Virgin America are different airlines, but we believe different works – and we’re confident fliers will agree,” Brad Tilden, CEO of Alaska Air Group, said in a news release.

The acquisition follows through on months of work to seal the $2.6 billion deal ($4 billion, including debt and aircraft operating leases). The U.S. Department of Justice gave its regulatory approval last week after tweaking the terms to comply with antitrust requirements.

The combined airlines vaulted Alaska Air Group from No. 6 to No. 5 on the list of U.S. carriers – past JetBlue, which had courted Virgin America as well. Alaska and Virgin America are projected to generate more than $7 billion in annual revenue and operate about 280 aircraft.

For the time being, the all-Boeing Alaska Airlines fleet and the all-Airbus Virgin America fleet will retain their separate brands. Except for one plane.

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Biofuel boost: Waste wood helps power jet

Biofuel bottles
Sample bottles of biofuel sit on an Alaska Airlines counter at Sea-Tac. (Credit: Alaska Airlines)

Alaska Airlines says it sent a Boeing 737 jet on the first commercial airline flight that was partially fueled by branches, stumps and other leftovers from forests in the Pacific Northwest.

The jet took off this morning from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and headed for Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., with its tanks full of a new type of biofuel blend.

Twenty percent of the jet fuel came from wood waste that was collected during timber harvests or thinning operations on land owned by Weyerhaeuser in Oregon, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe in Washington and the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes in Montana, plus rejected wood fibers from Cosmo Specialty Fibers in Cosmopolis, Wash.

In a typical timber harvest, some of the leftover limbs, branches and stumps are left behind to replenish the land and provide cover. The rest is typically pushed into a pile and burned.

Those practices provided an opportunity for the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance, a public-private consortium led by Washington State University. Researchers took advantage of a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to demonstrate a technology that converts the excess waste wood into isobutanol.

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U.S. flights to Cuba begin; Alaska Air gets set

Image: JetBlue arrival in Cuba
Crew members at the Santa Clara Abel Santamaría International Airport in Cuba welcome JetBlue Flight 387, the first commercial flight to Cuba from the U.S. in 55 years. (Credit: Business Wire)

Seattle-based Alaska Airlines today won the federal government’s formal approval to fly between Los Angeles and Havana, on the same day that JetBlue made a historic flight to Cuba.

JetBlue’s Flight 387 from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to the central Cuban city of Santa Clara marked the first regularly scheduled commercial flight between the two countries since 1961.

The chill in air travel began after Cuba’s communist revolution, and warmed up last year when a deal was struck to let U.S. carriers make up to 110 daily round-trip flights to Cuban cities. Since then, the Transportation Department and U.S. airlines have been laying the groundwork for service to Cuba.

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Virgin America shareholders OK Alaska merger

Virgin America and Alaska Airlines jet tails
Virgin America and Alaska Air Group are getting set to merge. (Credit: Alaska Air)

California-based Virgin America said today that its shareholders have approved the air carrier’s merger with Seattle-based Alaska Air Group, clearing one of the major requirements for the $2.6 billion deal to take effect later this year.

Under the terms of April’s merger agreement, Virgin America’s investors will receive $57 a share, which would pay a nearly 50 percent premium on the stock price in effect just before the deal was announced.

Alaska Air Group, which is the corporate parent of Alaska Airlines, won out after a fierce bidding war with JetBlue. The merger will give Alaska a firmer foothold in California, particularly for high-traffic routes to New York and Washington, D.C. Alaska Air’s CEO, Brad Tilden, has said the combined company might still keep Virgin America as a brand that’s distinct from Alaska Airlines.

The Virgin brand would have to be licensed from British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, at a cost that’s likely to amount to millions of dollars.

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Alaska wins OK to fly Seattle-L.A.-Havana route

Image: Cuban and U.S. flags
A woman in Miami flies Cuban and U.S. flags. (Credit: U.S. State Dept.)

The U.S. Department of Transportation today gave its tentative go-ahead for Alaska Airlines to fly between Los Angeles and Havana, the capital of Cuba, with extended service between L.A. and Seattle, the airline’s hometown.

Alaska said the Cuba-bound flights would be operated with a Boeing 737-900ER aircraft, capable of carrying 181 passengers. Each daily flight would begin in Seattle, then stop over in Los Angeles, with same-plane service continuing to Havana. The return flight would retrace that route.

The route is among 20 slots in Havana that were made available to U.S. carriers this year when the federal government signed an agreement with Cuba to restore regular commercial air travel between the two countries, after a gap of more than 50 years.

A dozen U.S. airlines applied for the slots, proposing a total of nearly 60 flights a day. Alaska was among eight airlines that were awarded the 20 available round-trip flights. Alaska said it was the only airline that proposed daily nonstop service from Los Angeles to Havana.

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Alaska Air is buying Virgin America for $2.6B

Virgin America and Alaska Airlines jet tails
Virgin America and Alaska Air Group confirmed their merger plans. (Credit: Alaska Air)

Alaska Air Group confirmed reaching a $2.6 billion deal to buy Virgin America after a bidding war with JetBlue Airways.

“This was a hard-fought competition, and we were very happy to come away as the successful bidder,” Alaska Air CEO Brad Tilden told reporters today.

Virgin America President and CEO David Kush said he was also pleased with the deal. “The price paid is a big win for our shareholders,” he said.

The deal involves a cash purchase of Virgin America’s shares at $57 each, which is a 47 percent premium over Friday’s closing price. The merger was approved by the boards of both airlines, but still must face U.S. regulatory approval. That’s expected to be worked out by the end of the year.

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