Alaska Airlines Bombardier CRJ-700 (N215AG) operated by Skywest seen at SEA.Photo by Keith Draycott.
Not too long ago, Seattle-based Horizon Air flew CRJ-700s for the Alaska Air Group. Then, Horizon announced they would get rid of the CRJ-700s and only fly a fleet of Bombardier Q400s). Shortly thereafter, Alaska announced they would absorbthe Horizon brand. Now, Alaska Airlines has contracted out with Skywest to fly Bombardier CRJ-700 regional jets on some of their west coast routes.
The Alaska Air Group felt there was still a need for a 70-person regional jet to serve some of their west coast destinations, resulting in Alaska Airlines contracting with Skywest to fly 22 daily CRJ-700 flights between Seattle/Portland and Burbank, Fresno, Long Beach, Ontario and Santa Barbara.
Interesting enough, Skywest is leasing the CRJ-700s from Horizon Air and flying them for Alaska under the new brand. The regional jets will sport the Alaska Airlines livery with a smaller “Skywest” on the fuselage. The interior will have blue leather seating, to match what you might find on an Alaska Air Boeing 737. However, the service will mirror what you would expect from flying on Horizon Air (yay free beer and wine).
“Alaska’s goal is to create a consistent customer experience on all of its regional-aircraft flights and provide a level of service including beer and wine that will compete against other regional airlines that offer a first class cabin,” Marianne Lindsey, Alaska Airlines Corporate Communications explained to Airline Reporter. “Coffee, napkins, cups, the inflight magazine, flight attendant uniforms and flight attendant announcements will match Alaska’s. Boarding passes and a decal next to the aircraft boarding door will indicate the flights are being operated for Alaska by SkyWest.”
Horizon hopes to have a single fleet of Q400’s by June 1st, matching Alaska’s single fleet of Boeing 737s. It becomes more economical for Horizon to lease the aircraft through Skywest since they have many more CRJs in their fleet, allowing economies of scale that Horizon or Alaska cannot match.
Horizon Air employees are trained to work with the CRJ-700, but since they will now be operated by Skywest, there will be some operational changes that have required employees to go through some re-training. “More than 2,200 employees at Alaska, Horizon, SkyWest and our partner vendors have been trained,” Lindsey explained. “More than 40 computer systems have been integrated and more than 400 processes have been confirmed–all to ensure safety and compliance, as well as a seamless product for our customers.”
Alaska didn’t indicate that it immediate plans for additional routes to be flown by the CRJ-700s. “We’re continually evaluating demand in all Alaska markets and will ensure the aircraft type and frequency (or capacity) continue to match demand throughout the Alaska system,’ Lindsey confirmed.
I would imagine there could be some hiccups with so many changes happening at one time for the new Alaska, old Horizon and the addition of Skywest. However, Alaska has a good track record of keeping people informed and trying to make the changes unnoticeable to their customer. Although many of us airline geeks will notice a change of aircraft type and livery, most people just want to get from point A to B as safe and cheaply as possible.
Being a Seattle native, I have mixed feelings seeing the Horizon brand slowly going away. Alaska needs to be able to compete and keep themselves a strong independent airline. They have weathered many economic downturns without having to sell or merge. It is a love/hate relationship and it helps that Alaska Air’s livery looks so darn good on the Bombardier Q400 and CRJ-700.
Things of interest:
* Schedule of the Skywest CRJ-700s
* Photo of CRJ-700 in Horizon livery (N601QX which is now N215AG)
* An ex-Horizon CRJ-700 caught in Atlanta (N604QX)
* Photo of Alaska livery on CRJ-700 in flight (N215AG)
* Another photos of CRJ in AS livery on the ground (N215AG)
Image by Keith Draycott via Flickr
Airports can be great places to hang out at after you get through security.
The last few years, the more I fly, the more I see body scanners. To date, even though many airports I travel to and from have body scanners, I have been able to avoid them — and pat-downs as well.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not about making a huge stand and doing whatever I can to avoid them. I just do what any normal passenger might try to avoid an additional delay at the airport.
Most of the time I fly out of Seattle-Tacoma International airport (SEA), where they have three main check points. At each check point there are multiple security lines and each line has access to a body scanner. Problem is, on many occasions there will be multiple lines open, but only one body scanner active.
A TSA agent will check my ID and boarding pass and then I have the ability to choose which security line I want. Of course, I choose a line that does not have a body scanner active and viola I have avoided the $150,000.00 high-tech scanner.
I have noticed at some airports there will be a second TSA employee telling you which line to go in, but often this person is missing or also easy to ignore if one wanted to. Could the TSA demand you go to line #1 with the body scanners and then escort you over? Sure, but that is a pretty embarrassing situation to put a person in, especially if it ends up being only people of a certain race.
This is not a big deal if someone who means airlines no harm can avoid the body scanners, but it would be just as easy for someone wanting to do harm. Take away all the privacy and health concerns; what is the point of spending all this money for the machines, training, and man-power to “keep us all safe,” if they can be consistently avoided? My father always told me, “if you are going to do something, do it right.” Sure, I didn’t always listen as a kid, but I think it is good advice for the TSA — I only hope they are listening.
How have your experiences with the body scanners gone? Have you noticed the same lack of consistency?
The new Airbus Corporate Jet livery. Click for much larger.
Airbus has revealed a new livery and brand for their line of corporate jets. The new livery reflects the look that many customers choose for their own private jets. Along with the new livery, Airbus Corporate Jets will have new nomenclature.
Instead of the standard “A” in front of an aircraft’s name (ie A330), it will be “ACJ” for the corporate jets (ie ACJ330).
’œAirbus has always been an innovator, regularly introducing improvements for the benefit of its customers, and we wanted to reflect this in our corporate jet family by introducing new branding, colours and names that provide a fresher and more modern look,’ declares Airbus Chief Operating Officer, Customers, John Leahy. ’œOne of our greatest strengths is having the world’s most modern aircraft family, and this is reflected in the new Airbus corporate jet branding,’ he adds.
Although the ACJ318 to ACJ320 are the more popular models, customers are able to order aircraft as large as the ACJ380. To date, there have been 170 Airbus Corporate Jets sold, flying on every continent, including Antarctica.
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Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-400 Combi (N764AS) arrives at Sea-Tac.
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After landing, the captain brings out the lucky salmon.
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24,300 pounds of salmon are unloaded from the Boeing 737-400 Combi.
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The Chefs are ready to cook up the Salmon.
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The Salmon-3-Salmon Boeing 737 (N792AS) was present to watch the event.
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The salmon get fileted right after de-planing.
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Judges try the different salmon dishes.
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Medals are handed out – everyone is a winner.
All photos done by Tad Carlson/NYCAviation – Click any for larger view.
Today Seattle welcomed Alaska Air Cargo’s Boeing 737-400 Combi (N764AS), containing 12 tons of Copper River Salmon, which is a favorite of fish connoisseurs.
One lucky fish was donated by Ocean Beauty Seafood to be cooked up for Alaska Airline’s second annual Copper Chef Cook Off Competition. The large fish was carried off the plane by the captain and in the open market it would be worth about $1000.
Three Seattle area restaurants, Anthony’s, Elliott’s Oyster House and SkyCity at the Needle, did their best to wow the VIP judges. At the judging table were Jay Buhner, Seattle Mariner Hall of Famer, Mike Fourtner, deckhand on the F/V Time Bandit on the Discovery Channel’s ’œThe Deadliest Catch’ and Joe Sprague, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of marketing.
Local Seattle celebrity John Curley provided humor and commentary while the cooks had 30 minutes to cook their best salmon. Although all three restaurants created delicious dishes for the judges and guests, Anthony’s held on to their title as Best Copper Chef of 2011.
The three recipes prepared for the Copper Chef Cook-off are available to download on Alaska’s website and fish lovers are encouraged to share their own favorite salmon recipes on Twitter, using the hashtag #CRsalmon.
Along with Alaska employees and invited media, Alaska MVP members who donated 75,000 miles to the Make-a-Wish foundation were invited to celebrate the arrival of the salmon and get a taste of each recipe.
Alaska Airlines is no stranger to flying seafood. Last year, they flew more than 22 million pounds of Alaskan seafood to the continental US, including almost 350 tons of Copper River Salmon.
“We’re proud to bring this prized, wild Copper River salmon to the Lower 48 and points beyond,” said Joe Sprague, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of marketing. “With enhanced food quality procedures and additional flights to support the Alaska seafood industry, we are going the extra mile to deliver fresh seafood throughout the country.”
This story was a joint effort between AirlineReporter.com and NYCAviation.com
General Aviation Day at Paine Field is back! What an amazing and great event celebrating aviation. People from all over will fly and drive in to share their love of flight.
The flyer above gives you most details, but this is a great family event, since it is FREE. Even though seeing all the aircraft is wonderful, I think the best part of the event are all the airplane owners who volunteer their time and gas to fly kids via the Young Eagle Flight program.
I heard that Boeing will have 747 DreamLifter for people to get close to, so that should be a nice treat.
Sadly, I am going to be out of town on Saturday. If you are going, take some photos and/or videos and email them to me da***@ai*************.com and I will share them!
