Alaska Airlines At A Glance
Alaska Airlines was created in 1932, when its fleet consisted of one single-engine, three passenger plane. In its 66 years since it has developed into the 10th largest U.S. airline. In 1951, Alaska became the first airline to travel over the North Pole. In 1995, it developed a system by which its customers are able to book reservations via the Internet.
Alaska Airlines has three primary departure points:
- Seattle
- Portland
- Anchorage
Alaska Airlines makes 436 departures daily. Last year the airline carried 12,284,000 passengers—this is a traffic increase of 4.1 percent from 1996. The $72.4-million company may be large on the West Coast, but overall it carries less than 2 percent of all U.S. passenger traffic.
In 1997, the average age of an Alaska Airlines aircraft was 7.6 years old, making it the youngest fleet in the nation. It plans to invest in 15 more aircrafts by 2002. Currently the company has:
| Aircraft Model | No. of Aircrafts | Age (years) |
| MD-80 | 42 | 8.2 |
| B737-400 | 28 | 3.9 |
| B737-200C | 8 | 17.4 |
All information courtesy Alaska Airlines, April 1998