In February 2021, we announced our 2025 diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals and commitment to a more inclusive workforce (read the February 2022 update here).  

We’re just shy of the halfway point, and while we’re making progress, it’s a bit slower than we’d like it to be. Let’s recap where we are today and what we’re doing to accelerate progress.  

Representation

As you’ll see above, our frontline workgroup has seen an increase of 3.7% in racial diversity over 10 months. Leadership representation has increased by 0.5%, putting us at risk of not meeting our goal of 30% racial diversity at all levels by the end of 2025. Our focus areas to get on track include process improvement, education, leader engagement, reassessing the promotion process and diverse bench building.  

To continue building a diverse talent pipeline and promoting great talent, we are: 

• Expanding our sourcing partnerships and how/where we promote our jobs.  
• Building and investing in development programs, including Leader Academy (an initiative to support our 2023 strategic priority to ‘Invest in our people and culture’), education assistance and mentorship opportunities like WeFly.  
• Creating a BRG Development Program to grow our BRG leaders. 
• Improving succession planning and assessing our internal promotions process.  

Progress so far: 

• Horizon increased its leadership representation and the newly implemented pilot mentoring program boasts 45% diversity! 
• Of our new hires in 2022, 56% identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC), and 61% identify as women.  
• Implemented changes to hiring events and flight attendant job descriptions to remove bias, supporting increases in the diversity of our flight attendant classes. 
• Diversified our intern program pool of applicants, with 54% of college interns and 41% of high school interns identifying as BIPOC.  
• Launched a Supplier Diversity Program to support companies that reflect our communities and held a product showcase for diverse-owned food and beverage businesses to find new partnership opportunities. 
• Continued focus on Board diversity, with the appointment of Patricia Bedient as the first woman to chair our Board.  

Gender Diversity, Veteran and Disability Representation:

Culture

Our annual employee engagement survey contains eight inclusion-related questions measuring our “Inclusion Index Score.” As of December 31, 2022, our score is 9 points, and we will report a new score after the survey ends.  

To continue creating a culture of belonging, we are: 

• Creating opportunities to build community and connection through BRG events/activities and company-sponsored events (summer events will be announced soon!).  
• Providing DEI educational opportunities to increase cultural awareness and build understanding and building DEI practices into our World Class Training strategic priority.  
• Building programs to support diverse employees, provide resources to underrepresented groups, and inform our inclusion efforts based on self-identification. 
• Showing care for our employees by improving our recognition program, including new awards, milestone parties awarding Mileage Plan miles for milestone service anniversaries, and more! 
• Working to create more accessible employee spaces for corporate and airport employees.

Progress so far: 

• Created a DEI Disability Office to implement one standard of best practices across the company and be more intentional in serving guests and employees who self-identify as having a disability.  
• Signed Airlines for America’s commitment to improve accessibility and services for passengers with disabilities. 
• Expanded medical coverage to domestic partners.  
• Updated our grooming policies to be more inclusive. 

Public Leadership 

We believe education is the great equalizer and a critical component on the path to equity.  

The pandemic affected how we engage young people over the past two years, but as we navigated into a new normal in 2022, we were thrilled to bring back in-person events and opportunities on special aircraft like “Our Commitment.”  

We’re supporting education by: 

• Taking the Our Commitment aircraft to fly 50 high school students from UNCF to an HBCU college tour in Atlanta, where they’ll also visit historical sites. In line with this aircraft’s mission of expanding access to education, we’ll continue to offer opportunities like this year-round.  
• Hosting a third Aviation Day in San Francisco to expand the visibility of careers in aviation.  
• Providing an Alaska Airlines Foundation grant to Yuut Elitnaurviat in Bethel, Alaska, to support the aviation maintenance program. 
• Partnering with Alaska EXCEL to provide students from rural and remote Alaska an opportunity to receive hands-on introductory training and awareness in various career fields specific to Alaska and beyond. 

Progress so far: 

• Launched a partnership with the Juneteenth Foundation to provide scholarships for 25 students. 
• Announced the appointment of Ben Minicucci to UNCF’s Board of Directors, another example of our unwavering 15+ year partnership with UNCF and commitment to education. 
• Flew groups of students with Seattle Urban League, C5 Los Angeles and The Brooklyn to Alaska Project on the Our Commitment livery for conferences, leadership camps and training around the US.  
• Hosted in-person career panels and hangar tours for youth-focused nonprofits, as well as Aviation Day in Seattle and Portland, where students explored our hangar and aircraft and met with aviation schools and Alaska leaders about career opportunities.