Alaska Airlines Tops On-Time Performance Among 10 Largest U.S. Carriers for Fourth Consecutive Month

Alaska Airlines ranked first in on-time performance for the fourth month in a row among the 10 largest U.S. carriers (based on domestic revenue passenger miles), according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) monthly Air Travel Consumer Report released today.

During July, 87.2 percent of Alaska Airlines flights arrived on time or within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time – a 7.3 percentage point improvement over the airline’s July 2008 performance and 9.6 percentage points higher than the industry average of 77.6 percent for the month.

"Our July result continues the outstanding on-time performance we delivered in the second quarter of the year and is thanks to Alaska’s hard-working employees, who have remained focused on running a great operation and providing excellent service to our customers," said Ben Minicucci, Alaska Airlines’ chief operating officer.

Alaska’s sister carrier, Horizon Air, also improved its on-time performance in July, with 88.3 percent of its flights arriving on time, compared to 86.3 percent in July 2008.

With hubs in Anchorage, Alaska; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and Los Angeles; Alaska Airlines is the tenth-largest domestic carrier and averages 416 flights a day. The airline ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Network Carriers" in the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 and 2009 North America Airline Satisfaction Studies(SM).

The DOT’s air travel report covers 19 airlines and is available online at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/atcr09.htm.

Note: Information is based on the latest public DOT T100 report.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group , together serve more than 90 cities through an expansive network in Alaska, the Lower 48, Hawaii, Canada and Mexico. For reservations, visit alaskaair.com. For more news and information, visit the Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air Newsroom at alaskaair.com/newsroom.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: maria.koenig@alaskaair.com

SOURCE: Alaska Airlines