In the News: Alaska Airlines to cut some Mexico flts this fall..

Alaska Airlines shedding

six routes in capacity shift

Horizon assuming service to La Paz and Loreto

May 14, 2008

As part of an ongoing effort to enhance the profitability of Air Group’s network, Alaska Airlines plans to end service in six markets this fall, with more route changes to be announced in coming weeks.

Beginning Sept. 7, Alaska will discontinue its daily service between Portland and Orlando and its three daily roundtrips between San Francisco and Vancouver. The carrier will also end its four weekly flights between Los Angeles and Loreto and its thrice-weekly service between LAX and La Paz. In addition, Alaska will not return this winter to three routes it has flown seasonally in the past between San Francisco and Cancún, Mazatlán and Zihuatanejo.

Horizon Air will assume some of the discontinued routes by flying three times a week between Los Angeles and La Paz, pending U.S. and Mexico government approval, and LAX and Loreto.

La Paz would be a new market for Horizon and its second in Mexico. Horizon launched service to Loreto in January and announced in March that this service would become seasonal starting June 7. On Oct. 26, Alaska will resume once-a-week seasonal service to Loreto.

Some of the capacity from these cancellations will cover Alaska Airlines’ new service to Maui. Alaska will operate daily, year-round service from Seattle to Maui starting July 17 and twice-weekly service from Anchorage beginning Oct. 31 through April 25, 2009.

The changes are a part of a broader effort to trim capacity from underperforming routes and redeploy it in ways that will bring new revenue into the network, said Andrew Harrison, Alaska Air Group’s managing director of planning. In its first quarter conference call with investment analysts and the news media on April 24, Alaska disclosed that it planned to redeploy 3 percent to 5 percent of its existing capacity in the fall schedule. The company expects to announce further schedule reductions and where the remaining freed-up capacity will be redeployed within the next several weeks.

“For every dollar the price of oil increases, Alaska incurs $10 million in additional fuel costs per year,” Harrison said. “When you consider that the price of crude oil has nearly doubled from $65 a barrel in the second quarter of 2007 to $125 per barrel today, it’s critical we take a serious look at our network and redeploy capacity to the places where we can strengthen our network, recover our fuel costs and continue to provide the best service to our customers.”

Harrison said the airline canceled service in the affected markets because fares and passenger levels no longer cover flying costs. “This was a very difficult decision to make,” he said. “Unfortunately, it was a necessary one given the challenging marketplace we face.”

The routes Horizon plans to assume between Los Angeles and Loreto and La Paz initially will be flown with its smaller CRJ-700 regional jets, although the carrier is seeking government approval to operate 76-seat Bombardier Q400s for improved efficiency. The Q400 has roughly half the seats of Alaska’s Boeing 737-400s and burns 30 percent less fuel than a similarly sized regional jet.

The market cancellations come in addition to changes made to the spring schedule. Effective April 27, Alaska Airlines ended its five daily roundtrips between Oakland and Orange County. It also discontinued its Seattle-Boise and Seattle-Reno service, transferring these routes to Horizon to better match aircraft capacity with demand.

“The competitive landscape is changing very quickly,” Harrison said. “As the cost of fuel continues to soar, we need to respond quickly and appropriately. Some carriers are discontinuing operations, some are considering mergers and others are significantly reducing capacity. We’re constantly monitoring the marketplace to take advantage of new opportunities as they open up, while continuing to ensure we cover our bases of strength.”

So what does that all mean? LOL

I read that they are cutting some flights, but then Horizon will pick it up instead..right? THat's the same company!

This thread made my heart drop. I am happy to read that PV is not a location they are cutting out. Phew!

Crap Abbie, when I read the title I was like "NOOOOOOOOO". Flights from SFO to Cabo are already scarce w/ Frontier dropping their route, and expensive!!!!!! I'm hoping they don't add Cabo to that list...

no, sorry for the scare gals, i just thought some people might want to know about the sfo-cancun flights, lots of cancun brides on here, and i didnt know if anyone was routing thru sfo.

sorry! didn't mean to freak anyone out!