Originally Posted by
WHBM
I seem to recall that United was running a substantial hub operation at Seattle, so I'll guess this was with them. Somehow they later retreated from this.If it was the 1980s I remember going through Sea-Tac, and the two major carriers there were United and Northwest, but I recall United were the dominant local service brand, on routes once the province of Hughes.
Indeed, Horizon Air's first code sharing relationship was with United with this agreement becoming effective in the summer of 1985. According to a book entitled "Remember the Magic...The Story of Horizon Air" by author Bill Endicott, it appears from the outset that Horizon Air was not satisfied with the terms of their agreement with United with QX continuing to negotiate with UA for a bigger slice of the revenue pie. However, United was not inclined to increase the amount of revenue being paid to Horizon Air for their code sharing service. And that dissatisfaction at Horizon subsequently helped open the door concerning a dramatic development in the form of interest from another air carrier: Alaska Airlines.
Alaska Airlines was still a very small air carrier at this time. At the end of 1983 just a year and a half before Horizon Air began code sharing with United, the Alaska Airlines fleet numbered only 22 aircraft to include thirteen B727-200s, four B727-100Cs, two B727-100s and three B737-200Cs. And not all of those Boeing aircraft were being operated in scheduled passenger operations as two of the B727-100Cs were being flown via dedicated contract in shuttle operations up to the North Slope for two oil and gas companies, ARCO and SOHIO. The Alaska Airlines annual report at the time also states that four additional B727-200s were available to the air carrier from two other airlines, being American and Continental, for use on interchange routes linking Alaska with destinations in the lower 48 served by AA and CO. Following implementation of the code sharing deal between Horizon Air and United, Bruce Kennedy, the Chairman, President and CEO of Alaska Airlines at the time, kept trying to get the attention of Milt Kuolt, CEO and founder of Horizon Air (who was a gregarious individual to say the least). In fact, at one point Mr. Kuolt told Alaska Airlines to "just forget it." However, the meetings between AS and QX continued with Bruce Kennedy stating, " We felt that Horizon's effort at code sharing with United was a key motivator that led us to discussions." And these discussions ultimately led to Alaska Airline taking the process one step further: an acquisition of Horizon by Alaska which was consummated in 1986. United then had to make other plans with regard to passenger feed provided via a code share partner at SEA.