Delta buying Alaska Airlines?
Feb 2, 2010, 5:54 pm
#61
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"Now, the smile grows even wider!" (as USAir tried to expand to every little airport on the west coast and charge extortion fares like they did in the east)
"Something Special in the West!" (as AA built up and the money-losing SJC hub and eventually sold it to Reno Air -- who thought that SJC could be an actual north/south hub -- only two major cities north (SEA/PDX) of there on the west coast???)
"Something Special in the West!" (as AA built up and the money-losing SJC hub and eventually sold it to Reno Air -- who thought that SJC could be an actual north/south hub -- only two major cities north (SEA/PDX) of there on the west coast???)
Feb 2, 2010, 6:41 pm
#62
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Strictly speaking, wouldn't this have been considered an interchange and not a codeshare? I think the most interesting examples of interchange services involved AF, BA, BN, SQ, and the Concorde.
Feb 2, 2010, 6:54 pm
#63
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Alaska
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During the late 60s and early 70s, there were actually two interchange agreements between the states of Alaska and Texas. Continental flew an interchange with Western and Alaska flew a similar arrangement with Braniff. Both were flown with 727 equipment although the Western/Continental arrangement often featured a DC-10.
Feb 3, 2010, 12:39 pm
#64
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(Of course, the fare was still $450++, brought down only by the use of a companion cert and traveling with a friend. Ah, the days of RenoAir and MarkAir or when CO actually wanted to compete on the route, when you could bump down to SEA for a weekend for $99rt...)
Feb 3, 2010, 2:47 pm
#65
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Alaska
Programs: Alaska MVPG
Posts: 265
Some great stuff for airline history fans in Alaska. Western Airlines came to Alaska when they acquired Pacific Northern Airlines back in the 1960s. Western and Alaska were quite competitive then and we had some good deals. Of course, Alaska didn't have the extensive west coast route system they have now so Western competed heavily with United in the lower 48 west coast market.
Alaskan sourdoughs might recall the famous "three feet for your two legs motto" that Western touted along with their every popular Hawaii Triangle Fare. When Western first started service to Hawaii, they had a deal whereby you could fly to Honolulu for free if you booked a round trip triangle to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other west coast cities. It was later raised to a $50.00 fee but no passengers ever complained about such a deal. Furthermore, Alaska Airlines didn't have near the clout or status; in fact, locals used to refer to them as "Elastic Airlines".
After Delta bought Western, service to Alaska was slowly but seriously curtailed. All that's left is the Salt Lake City run and seasonal service to LA and Atlanta although that will technically change with the addition of Northwest Airlines flights brought about by the merger.
Alaskan sourdoughs might recall the famous "three feet for your two legs motto" that Western touted along with their every popular Hawaii Triangle Fare. When Western first started service to Hawaii, they had a deal whereby you could fly to Honolulu for free if you booked a round trip triangle to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other west coast cities. It was later raised to a $50.00 fee but no passengers ever complained about such a deal. Furthermore, Alaska Airlines didn't have near the clout or status; in fact, locals used to refer to them as "Elastic Airlines".
After Delta bought Western, service to Alaska was slowly but seriously curtailed. All that's left is the Salt Lake City run and seasonal service to LA and Atlanta although that will technically change with the addition of Northwest Airlines flights brought about by the merger.
Feb 3, 2010, 3:08 pm
#66
Join Date: May 2006
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Reno Air was fantastic: $25 upgrades to F on day of departure. They had 5 or 6 rows of F too, so there was plenty of space. Every now and then I'll see someone on my WN intra California flights with a Reno Air or PSA bag tag. I always say something and everyone misses them dearly.
Feb 3, 2010, 10:52 pm
#67
Formerly known as I_Hate_US_Airways
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Feb 3, 2010, 11:24 pm
#68
Join Date: Jan 2008
Programs: AS MVPG, CO, NW(now DL), Flying Blue
Posts: 6,554
maybe and hopefully they remain with MSP. Clearly over the years DL hasnt shown much interest in Alaska. Even one of DLs first merger moves was to announce a closure timeline for the ANC NW cargo operations. And with this close DL/AS partnership I cant help but wonder if sooner rather than later DL allows AS to takeover some of the routes from ANC to their hubs. I believe this so called enhanced partnership may have a lot more going on behind the scenes than we are aware of.
Feb 13, 2010, 2:18 pm
#69
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maybe and hopefully they remain with MSP. Clearly over the years DL hasnt shown much interest in Alaska. Even one of DLs first merger moves was to announce a closure timeline for the ANC NW cargo operations. And with this close DL/AS partnership I cant help but wonder if sooner rather than later DL allows AS to takeover some of the routes from ANC to their hubs. I believe this so called enhanced partnership may have a lot more going on behind the scenes than we are aware of.
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see DL "hand" ANC-MSP over to AS, at least in the winter months, and drop their own ANC-MSP down to summer seasonal, similar to FAI-MSP.
Feb 13, 2010, 9:46 pm
#70
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\FWIW, Reno Air didn't "buy" the hub from AA. They got their start in Reno, flying RNO-SEA in 1992. At that time AA was still relatively big at SJC, since the AirCal merger had wrapped up a year or two earlier. As AA drew SJC down, Reno Air expanded into the SJC market, and did quite well, actually. At the time WN wasn't huge in San Jose, or really California for that matter.
And the rest is simply history now...sadly...
Feb 15, 2010, 8:07 am
#71
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maybe and hopefully they remain with MSP. Clearly over the years DL hasnt shown much interest in Alaska. Even one of DLs first merger moves was to announce a closure timeline for the ANC NW cargo operations. And with this close DL/AS partnership I cant help but wonder if sooner rather than later DL allows AS to takeover some of the routes from ANC to their hubs. I believe this so called enhanced partnership may have a lot more going on behind the scenes than we are aware of.
Unless AS and DL form a JV (to allow revenue sharing), I don't see DL giving up SLC/MSP-ANC. MSP in particular does quite well.
Feb 15, 2010, 3:47 pm
#72
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: PDX
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold, Hyatt Platinum
Posts: 101
^
Oooo... my dream scenario.
Y'all have got it all wrong.
My prediction: AS needs to spend some of that $1+ billion cash hoard and is buying HA in order to quickly obtain their longer-range 767/A330 fleet. Single aircraft type was a great idea at the time but is now out the door for operational reasons. Voila, no more headwind issues in the winter with the PNW-Hawaii flights.
With the new a/c, service is started between ANC-LHR, ANC-FRA, ANC-NRT and ANC-PVG. Maybe three-four times weekly each in summer, once or twice in winter. The longer-range a/c are moved south to Hawaii market in winter, still using the -800's in the summer when winds aren't an issue.
My prediction: AS needs to spend some of that $1+ billion cash hoard and is buying HA in order to quickly obtain their longer-range 767/A330 fleet. Single aircraft type was a great idea at the time but is now out the door for operational reasons. Voila, no more headwind issues in the winter with the PNW-Hawaii flights.
With the new a/c, service is started between ANC-LHR, ANC-FRA, ANC-NRT and ANC-PVG. Maybe three-four times weekly each in summer, once or twice in winter. The longer-range a/c are moved south to Hawaii market in winter, still using the -800's in the summer when winds aren't an issue.
