Alaska Airlines leads the pack with fewest flight cancellations and top-ranked loyalty program
Share
Today, we announced our financial results from the last three months, and it includes good news for guests, employees, the communities we serve and our shareholders. Dive into all the financial details here, but these are the main takeaways:
We are running a strong, reliable operation.
Our business is complex, but at the end of the day, our 23,000 employees are working together to get you safely from point A to point B.
This quarter, our team was running on all cylinders and carried that momentum into the July 4th holiday week (where we welcomed nearly 1 million guests). On June 30th, we flew the most guests in a single day ever in our history while leading the industry in completion rate (lowest rate of cancellations of any airline) with a 99.59% grade this quarter. We also worked hard to get you to your destination on time – with over 82% of flights arriving within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
“People are hungry to travel, and our frontline employees are delivering the safe, reliable and caring experience that people expect when they fly with us,” said CEO Ben Minicucci. “I’m so proud of our team for knocking it out of the park and delivering industry-leading operational and financial outcomes. We chose to prioritize reliability, which is imperative to restoring stability, improving predictability for our guests and employees, capturing record revenue, and serving as the foundation for our long-term profitable growth.”
Our investments in new aircraft, training resources and staffing have prepared us to show up well for your important summer travel, and we couldn’t be prouder of our teams.
Our Mileage Plan program ranks above the rest.
Our Mileage Plan program was just recognized as being the best airline rewards program by U.S. News & World Report. It’s no secret to our guests who earn and redeem miles with us that you just get more with our Mileage Plan program compared to other loyalty programs.
Consider using your hard-earned miles on a dream vacation to more than 120 destinations across the United States, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Bahamas, Guatemala and Mexico or to more than 1,000 global destinations on our partner airline. Right now, you can fly from Seattle to Tahiti on our partner Air Tahiti Nui starting at just 30,000 miles!
We’re investing back into our business.
Even amid rising costs like fuel, our pre-tax margin (the percentage of money we made after all our expenses but before paying taxes) is likely to lead the industry this quarter. All that means is we’re managing our finances in a way that allows us to weather any future downturns and continue investing in a better guest experience. So, how are we spending the money we made?
Investing in our people
Our employees are the heart of everything we do. We invest in competitive wages and comprehensive benefits, expanded training opportunities and incentives when our team performs well. Because of their industry-leading performance over the last three months, employees earned more than $7 million in a quarterly incentive payout (which we call Operational Performance Rewards (OPR) and is split among all employees). We have also accrued roughly $100 million in the first half of the year towards our end of year Performance-Based Payout (PBP), which rewards employees for their progress on financial, operational and safety goals.
Buying new aircraft
Each month we’re taking delivery of newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft. Of the 251 new planes we’ve ordered, we already have 53 in our fleet. This fresher fleet gives guests that new airplane smell we all love and increases our fuel efficiency by 15-25% compared to previous generation aircraft, to help us reach our rigorous sustainability goals by 2040.
Enhancing the airport experience
We want every guest to enjoy their flying experience from the moment they step into an airport to when they board our aircraft, which is why we’re investing more than $2.5 billion to reimagine and modernize our largest hubs. You can see part of this investment up close in the newly renovated D Concourse Lounge in Seattle, which now has 50% more seating.
New destinations and more communities served
We’ve been on a roll announcing dozens of new routes, from international destinations (like the Bahamas and Guatemala) to increased flights to backyard Pacific Northwest gems in Bend, Yakima, Wenatchee and more. We’re thrilled to connect our guests to more of the places they want to go.
Quarterly reports might sound like they’re only relevant for Wall Street, but when we perform well, it benefits everyone who matters to us. See you next quarter!
