NY Times, February 14, 2000
Safety Board Says Wear Was Found on Jet in 1997
By MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 -- The National Transportation Safety Board said
tonight that a part of the tail assembly on the Alaska Airlines jet that
crashed last month had been found by the airline to be worn and in need of
replacement in September 1997 but that the airline later decided it was
good enough to keep in use.
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The Seattle Times, November 14, 1999
ALASKA AIRLINES LEARNS TO PINCH PENNIES - AND THRIVE
KYUNG M. SONG; SEATTLE TIMES AEROSPACE REPORTER
By 1991, Seattle's Alaska Airlines was getting battered by two low-cost
challengers, Mark-Air of Anchorage and Salt Lake City-based Morris Air,
which billed itself as an exact image of Southwest. Passengers were
forgoing pampering in exchange for lower fares, and they liked it.
Alaska lost $ 84.8 million in 1992, its first unprofitable year since 1972.
It lost $ 30.9 million more in 1993. By then, the carrier was already
remaking itself.
Economy became Alaska's new buzzword. The carrier laid off employees and
trimmed the in-flight crew from four attendants to three. It stopped
serving full meals around the clock after its executive chef found much of
the food returning uneaten. It also pared back the menu, serving cold
cereal and muffins at breakfast instead of scrambled eggs, pork sausage and
apple pancakes.
Alaska also rejiggered its aircraft to fit extra seats, said Greg Witter,
Alaska's director of corporate and government affairs. It dumped
fuel-guzzling Boeing 727s and dropped marginally profitable routes such as
Seattle to Tucson.
Finally, Alaska started better using its most valuable asset, the
airplanes. In 1991, Alaska operated its aircraft an average of 8.7 hours a
day. That had risen to 10.8 hours by 1995, effectively expanding Alaska's
fleet by 24 aircraft without buying a single plane. Today Alaska's aircraft
are in the air 11.3 hours a day.
"We essentially did it not because we thought it was a great idea, but in
order to survive," said Jack Evans, Alaska's manager of corporate
communications.
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Louis Proyect
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