Alaska Airlines | Hard Lessons

Whose Skies Are The Friendliest?

Delta has the most aircraft and carries the most passengers.

United flies to the most cities.

Southwest passengers have the most fun.

American just filed for bankruptcy (as have all of their major competitors—Delta, USAir, United, Northwest, and Continental—in previous years), putting several hundred thousand of my frequent flyer miles at risk.

Do you know which of these has the best “on time” score? Which has the highest “customer satisfaction” ranking? Which is the most profitable (based on earnings per share) and beat overall airline stock performance by 55% last year?

The answer is “none of the above.”

The best airline in America today is…Alaska Airlines. Surprised? Me too.

You may be thinking it is because they are non-union since it is popular to blame the unions for most everything these days. Nope—they are 80% unionized.

So maybe it’s because they have mostly good weather flights. Are you kidding? They fly primarily in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Have you ever been up there in the winter?

How did a relatively obscure airline become the best? Per their CEO, Bill Ayer, in a WSJ article by Matthew Kaminski on 2/4/12:

They focus on two or three key measures that drive results.
They share the wealth. They have an all-staff bonus plan.
They keep it simple—flying only Boeing 737 aircraft (Southwest pioneered this formula).
They have stayed away from the “bigger is better” philosophy that has driven all (yes, 100%) of the other major airlines into bankruptcy at some point.

They have focus…they share the wealth…they keep it simple…they only expand when it will be profitable. Works for them. Will it work for you? You won’t know unless you try it.

I wish they would expand into Nashville.

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