About Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines History
Alaska Airlines was founded by Mac McGee in 1932 when he started flying his 3 seat Stinson between Anchorage and Bristol Bay, Alaska.

In 1934 the company merged with Star Air Service, creating the largest airlne in Alaska. After several more mergers they settled on the name Alaska Airlines.

In the 1940's, Alaska Airlines branched into offering world wide charter services using military aircraft. These charters included the Berline Airlift in 1948 and Operation Magic Carpet in 1949.

In the late 1960's Alaska Airlines merged with Alaska Coastal-Ellis and Cordova Airlines, increasing Alaska Airline's reach from Fairbanks sout to Ketchikan and down to Seattle. During the cold war Alsaka Airlines made headlines by flying regular charter flights to the Soviet Union.

When the trans-Alaska Pipeline was built in the 1970's, Alaska Airlines gained in popularity carrying supplied, equipment, and workers to the region. In this new era, customer service became key for Alaska Airlines and this focus has helped the airline on track for a record 19 years of profitabiliy.

In 1979 when the airline industry was deregulated, Alaska Airline began expanding throughout the west coast and in 1987 joined forces with Horizon Air and Jet America, two airlines that AlaskaAir felt were also focusted on customer satisfaction.

By the end of the 1980's Alaska Airlines had tripled in size, the AlsakaAir fleet had increased 5 times over, and the route map expanded to included regular flights to Mexico and Russia.

Today Alaska Airlines continues to differentiate itself by providing superior levels of customer satisfaction. Alaska Airlines continues to grow and with new flights to Washington DC and Hawaii.

Alaska Airlines has been a pioneer in new technologies, being the first airline in North America to sell tickets online and the first in the world to allow customers to check in an print borading passes via the Internet.

When the history of commercial aviation is written, people ask how obscure little Alaska airline has continued to survive and thrive while once-proud giants disappeared.