Video and photos by Ingrid Barrentine

Together, we’re creating an airline people love and that starts with making a positive impact and building a world where everyone is free to love, live, and fly with pride. 

“Alaska Airlines remains steadfast in our commitment to Pride. We will continue to champion diversity, support the LGBTQ+ community, and create a culture where everyone can be their authentic selves,” said James Thomas, director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Alaska. “By celebrating our differences and embracing inclusivity, we believe we can soar to new heights together.” 

We’re also a proud sponsor of many Pride Parades around the country. Read more below for locations, what Pride means to our employees and where they like to celebrate. 

“Pride Month to me means celebrating all the different parts of me that for the longest time society made me feel ashamed of. It is celebrating all the activists that came before me that helped paved a softer world for me to be in. San Francisco is a beacon of hope for our community. No matter where you fall on the LGBTQ spectrum, you can come here and this is a safe haven for you.”

– Fabiano F., flight attendant.

“My absolute favorite city for Pride has to be San Francisco. Every color of the rainbow is replicated in the variety of humanity all present to support love, inclusivity, expression, and gender. The reason why we celebrate Pride year after year for the entire month is both a reminder of how far we have come and to set goals towards equity and equality for the future. Even though Pride is a month for LGBTQ+ humans, the movement encompasses a movement of true freedom for all.”

– Jessica T., first officer.

 

“As for where I love to celebrate, my favorite place is San Diego, but the grandeur and energy of San Francisco Pride is unparalleled!”  – Ismael B.

“I feel privileged to work at a company that values my contributions to our common professional goal, but also values and respects me as the authentic gay man that I am. We have come such a long way and made big important strides like the right to marry the person we love and the right to not get fired from our jobs for who we are, and those are just a few of the reasons we celebrate Pride. Are we where we all need to be yet? NO, but that’s why we proudly celebrate who we are, so we can continue to represent and encourage new generations that together, we can make a difference and have a better life for all of us.”

– Ismael B., sales and loyalty market manager. 

“One of the most beautiful things about being a queer person is that it’s inclusive of so many people, including allyship. I identify as a queer person, but also as a human operating in the world, just like everybody else—having struggles and a desire to be loved and to love. And for friendships and a great relationship with my family. Those are just as important to me as every part of my identity. I think that evolution of identity is something very normal for folks in any space.”

– J’Keren S., public affairs manager.

 

“I sometimes still look where I truly belong, but I always think that no matter what and where I would ever go, I always need to be proud of myself and learning to accept who I am. My advice: don’t be afraid to take a chance and shine bright.”

– Marcy P., customer service agent. 

“I Am …” at Alaska Airlines

Our “I Am…” Campaign kicked off in January to celebrate Heritage Months and the diversity of our employees. Keep an eye out for the “I Am…” logo throughout the year to read their inspiring stories.

Our “I Am…” Campaign kicked off in January to celebrate Heritage Months and the diversity of our employees. Keep an eye out for the “I Am…” logo throughout the year to read their inspiring stories. 

We’re sharing this story featuring multiple employees in honor of Pride Month. Alaska Airlines is a long-time supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, our partners and allies alike, and we are committed to creating an environment where our employees, guests, and business partners feel included and belong.    

As we like to say, our Pride flies nonstop, and the same can be said for our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work, which includes everything from improving the guest experience to how we do business and much more.  

We encourage our employees to be their authentic selves, and our commitment is to ensure a welcoming, safe, and respectful work environment for all. This includes adding domestic partners to health benefits, supporting transgender employees with dedicated resources, including gender identity and expression in our people policies, and more.    

We also care about creating an inclusive travel experience. We’ve modernized our reservation systems for broader gender inclusivity, adopted gender-neutral greetings onboard, and curated special inflight entertainment to celebrate Pride Month.   

Collaboration is key, and we also work with partners in the community including the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Lambda Legal and provide in-kind support to smaller grassroots organizations & fundraisers such as the Pride Foundation, Oregon Pride in Business, National LGBTQ + Bar Association, and many others.   

You don’t become a 92-year-old airline without a bit of grit, guts and determination—or a few stories to tell. Those of us who are fortunate enough to be considered ‘old-timers’ chuckle at the unconventional beginnings of the early Alaska Airlines. 

Even though our route map has expanded, we’re still that scrappy, little airline at our core—showing up for our guests and connecting communities that rely on us. For every new city we serve, there are memories like those about an airline president in the 1950s who thought it was a good idea to tap a beer keg in the galley of a plane. For every new fresh menu item we bring onboard, there are stories like the time we had a mid-air encounter with a salmon. Yep, splat right on the windshield (true story).  

Marianne started with Alaska Airlines in 1986 and counts herself among a cadre of old-timers still at the airline who marvel at how the airline has grown and evolved, and who are proud to have played a part in its history.

Rugged roots 

Our history traces back to 1932 when an industrious fella named Linious “Mac” McGee painted “McGee Airways” on the side of a three-passenger plane and started flying supplies out of Anchorage, Alaska.  

Born out of the need to get goods across a rugged landscape with no roads, the start-up eventually merged with another airline, and then another, and soon became Alaska Airlines. Employees needed to be industrious–we had pilots kicking the tires and paying for jet fuel themselves, airport employees shooing away stray caribou from the runways, and others pitching in to unload supplies at their final destination across Alaska.

Soaring through the decades 

Click photos to enlarge

Connecting communities where we live, work and fly 

Even though these colorful anecdotes are from way back when, their values still drive who we are today as an airline. We’re all about staying connected to the communities we serve. Just ask Brad C., a 28-year sales and marketing manager in the state of Alaska. Brad moved from Phoenix to Anchorage to take a job in sales for the airline and quickly learned that hiking boots and jeans were the way to fit in with his customers.  

“When I wore nice pants, they immediately asked me if I was from Seattle,” Brad laughed.  

It’s about truly understanding the community—his sales calls extend beyond travel agencies to include civic centers, hospitals, and even the local high school. 

“We’re the school bus for sports teams, the ambulance for transport to medical appointments, the delivery truck that brings in their milk and eggs,” Brad says of the airline’s importance to such remote communities as Nome, Kotzebue and Bethel in the northernmost part of the state.  

Recently, we flew a planeload of bottled water to Kotzebue to hydrate high school athletes playing in a tournament. “The city was having some issues with its water, so we jumped in to help,” Brad said. 

A small-town gesture isn’t unusual for us.  

When a guest flew into Sitka to pay respects at his father’s grave, and discovered the absence of ride-share services, our airport employee Elaine O., generously offered her car keys. “It was the right thing to do,” she said, loaning her car to the guest.  

“This type of thing happens all the time,” Brad said. “It’s part of who we are as an airline. Even though we’ve grown, our small-town roots run deep.”  

The Alaska Spirit 

Our airline’s spirit comes from not only caring for the people who fly with us, but also the challenging environment we face daily (especially in the great state of Alaska).

Our employees are hardier than most—unloading planes in sub-zero temps, changing a tire in a blizzard and flying into snow-and fog-socked airports is just another day at the office for our employees. Maybe those old-school anecdotes aren’t just history after all.  

In fact, it was these challenging conditions that inspired Alaska’s pilots to pioneer a GPS-based navigation system called Required Navigational Performance (RNP) to allow us to reliably serve rural airports like Juneau. “RNP was a game-changer” says Captain Bret P, managing director of network operations control. 

“The technology leveled the playing field, making landing in extreme weather and challenging topography as safe as landing at LAX,” he said.     

Bret, who has been a pilot with Alaska for 24 years, loves flying to small towns in Alaska. He finds it particularly meaningful when he sees the crew unloading essential supplies such as vegetables, kids’ bikes and more, underscoring the vital role Alaska Airlines plays in supporting these communities. 

Our path forward 

This dedication to the state where we grew up, this Alaska grit, is the glue that holds us together as an airline—and its why these stories of our humble beginnings are handed down from veteran employees to new hires. Because no matter how much we’ve grown, it’s important that we all remember how an obscure little airline from America’s 49^th state has continued to strive and thrive for 92 years—through, grit, guts and determination.