National Intern Day takes flight at Alaska Airlines

Summary

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This National Intern Day, we’re featuring four interns, including the author, and their experiences working at Alaska Airlines.

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At Alaska Air and Horizion Air, we are committed to growing the next generation of aviation professionals across the company. Our 12-week paid summer internship program provides hands-on industry experience across 15 divisions.

A driven group of summer interns is embarking on an unforgettable experience at Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air this summer. Today, on National Intern Day, we are celebrating their impact and journey.

Across multiple areas of the company, our interns are doing it all – from jump seating to safety planning – and we are committed to helping them grow as professionals. As they take off, our interns plug in across the business, getting on-the-ground insight into the many careers at Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air.

“Our interns not only work on meaningful projects that directly impact our business and guests, but they also bring a fresh perspective to the table and challenge us to think differently in how we do things. Our internship program can often lead to full-time employment, which not only helps to develop the next generation of talent in the aviation industry, but also serves as a pipeline for our Talent Acquisition team when filling entry-level roles at AAG.”

– Mackenzie Hertogs

Talent Acquisition Outreach Programs Manager at Alaska Airlines

This summer’s interns’ class, by the numbers:

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33 interns from 15 universities

27 Alaska interns

6 Horizon interns

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Supporting teams in Seattle, Portland and Anchorage

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Assisting in 15 divisions including Communications, Flight Operations, Revenue Management and more

Gary

Pilot intern at Alaska Airlines

Senior at Delaware State University, majoring in aviation

“My favorite part of this internship is being able to jump seat across the country. It puts everything into perspective, and I get to see what I’m training for in the professional world,” Gary shared. “What has stuck with me at Alaska is the strong safety culture across the entire company.”

The life of a pilot intern is constantly changing. They practice flight scenarios in our flight simulators and gain real world experience jump seating around the country. The jump seat is an auxiliary seat in the cockpit that is available to airline staff, which the pilot interns are cleared to sit in to allow them to gain experience firsthand.

Finn

Airport operations and customer support team – safety intern at Alaska Airlines

Senior at Emory University, majoring in business administration

“Alaska Airlines is opening doors for me by giving me the opportunity to work here in an operational support role. It’s allowed me to explore different areas of the company,” Finn explained. “Before this internship, I thought I knew what I wanted to do in aviation. But this experience has opened my eyes to so many other different career paths I hadn’t considered before.”

As an intern in operations support, Finn helps uphold Alaska’s commitment to safety, including processing safety reports from airport operations and customer service to support their safety program.

Lucia

Financial planning and analysis intern at Horizon Air

Junior at the University of Washington, majoring in economics

“I chose Horizon Air because I believe data is the foundation for innovation, and I wanted to work somewhere that uses data to actively improve customer experiences,” Lucia said. “Working at Horizon Financial Planning and Analysis has allowed me to experience the broad impact of financial data.”

In her role, Lucia is learning how numbers tell a bigger story and shape Horizon’s operations. She assists in crunching the numbers by digging into financial patterns. She’s already turned them into ideas of how Horizon can make improvements on cost control and has provided divisions with the resources they need such as budget templates.

Maya

Communications intern at Alaska Airlines

Senior at the University of Oregon, majoring in public relations

As one of the summer interns, I’m especially proud to share these stories – because I get to live one too.

Every day looks a little different for me. From collaborating with the internal and external communications teams to traveling to different Alaska hubs to work with our employees on the frontline, my work is centered around engaging storytelling and promoting our brand image. In communications, being rooted in our strong shared values is important. I’m fortunate to see those values play out every day.

I chose Alaska for its culture — the focus on culture and belonging, commitment to safety and the clear opportunities for personal and professional growth. I’m especially grateful to the leaders who challenge me to think critically and encourage me to strengthen my communication skills. Their support has made this internship not only valuable, but truly transformative.