Alaska Airlines cancels flights to improve punctuality

[Globaliser]

In case anyone's cruise plans may be affected, this is an Alaska Airlines press release today:-

Alaska Airlines Reduces Summer Flying To Improve On-Time Performance, Schedule Reliability

6/10/2005 1:01 p.m.

 

SEATTLE — Alaska Airlines today announced that it has removed eight daily round trips from its summer schedule to improve the airline's on-time performance and schedule reliability.

 

Flights eliminated from the summer schedule ending Sept. 10 include one Anchorage-Los Angeles round trip, one Anchorage-Phoenix round trip, one Seattle-Anchorage round trip, one Las Vegas-Seattle round trip and one Orlando-Seattle round trip. The airline's single daily round-trip service between Miami and Seattle will be temporarily suspended until Oct. 30. The airline also postponed the start of twice-daily nonstop service between Dallas-Fort Worth and Seattle until Sept. 12.

 

"This is a temporary measure to get our operation back on track after record load factors and increased summer flying, coupled with ongoing company transitions, caused delays and cancellations to rise," Alaska's CEO Bill Ayer said.

 

Reducing the number of scheduled flights each day will increase ground time between flights, create more spare aircraft and provide additional overnight time for maintenance and cleaning.

 

"We appreciate passengers' patience during a period when Alaska has been faced with unprecedented challenges both inside and outside the company that have created distractions impacting daily operations," Ayer said. "At a time of high fuel prices and intense competition, we must continue on our transition path and manage our costs to ensure Alaska's future."

 

The following flights were removed from Alaska's schedule:

[b]Period            Flight  Routing                   Departs    Arrives[/b] 
June 30-July 31   AS 109  Los Angeles-Anchorage     8:54 p.m.  1:13 a.m. 
July 1-Aug. 1     AS 106  Anchorage-Los Angeles     12:45 a.m. 6:54 a.m. 
June 30-Sept. 9   AS 855  Phoenix-Anchorage         8:11 p.m.  1:21 a.m. 
July 1-Sept. 10   AS 854  Anchorage-Phoenix         12:05 a.m. 6:35 a.m. 
June 12-Sept. 10  AS 195  Seattle-Anchorage         1:15 p.m.  3:49 p.m. 
June 12-Sept. 10  AS 164  Anchorage-Seattle         4:30 p.m.  8:51 p.m. 
July 19-Sept. 11  AS 808  Seattle-Dallas Ft. Worth  11:20 a.m. 5:10 p.m. 
July 19-Sept. 11  AS 809  Dallas Ft. Worth-Seattle  6:10 p.m.  8:10 p.m. 
July 19-Sept. 11  AS 810  Seattle-Dallas Ft. Worth  11:30 p.m. 5:20 a.m. 
July 20-Sept. 12  AS 811  Dallas Ft. Worth-Seattle  8 a.m.     10 a.m. 
July 1-Sept. 10   AS 630  Seattle-Las Vegas         10:32 a.m. 12:58 p.m. 
July 1-Sept. 10   AS 631  Las Vegas-Seattle         1:31 p.m.  4:05 p.m. 
July 3-Sept. 9    AS 10   Seattle-Orlando           10:05 p.m. 6:23 a.m. 
July 4-Sept. 10   AS 9    Orlando-Seattle           7:25 a.m.  10:16 a.m. 
July 3-Oct. 28    AS 16   Seattle-Miami             10:16 p.m. 6:54 a.m. 
July 4-Oct. 29    AS 17   Miami-Seattle             8 a.m.     11:16 a.m.

Customers whose travel plans have been impacted by this schedule change will be proactively contacted by Alaska Reservations about their new flights and times.

I think they mean "have been removed" rather than "were removed", but then grammar was never a PR department's strong suit.

[chipster]

Those of us who fly Alaska frequently on the West Coast welcome this change in the hopes that it MIGHT bring them back online as far as reliability goes. Many, many of their flights in the last month or two (possibly longer) have been late or cancelled and you simply cannot rely on them to keep a schedule. I think this is an effort to correct that before they lose too many more paying customers.

 

Last year, Alaska shifted their SEA-MIA flight from a daytime flight to a redeye which completely messed up our plans and we ended up having to cancel. If the new changes don't work for you, they will give you a full refund, as they did when we had to cancel.

[greatam]

Globaliser,

 

You got to be kidding!!! Thanks for the heads up.

 

My Alaska vacation now looks like it will be on AA through DFW. Just what I wanted to do. I have award tickets on Alaska leaving Aug. 29, returning Sept 9. No notification from AA, yet. Maybe they can get me on an LA-ANC, with me paying my way to LAX. This is the pits on the use of miles, but I am tired of going to Alaska via DFW from Phoenix and was overjoyed that AA actually booked me on Alaska this year. Better get on the phone. Thanks again

[hotmike98]

I checked, and they changed our flight times (11 minutes earlier on both departure times). I will have my ta call to ensure we get the same seats, and that our Princess pickup knows about this. Thanks for the heads up!

[scampi]

Regarding Alaska Airlines:

Today I had to cancel a flight for one person in our group. Normally we could not have received a refund. But the flight had had a schedule change of eight (8) minutes leaving at 10:03 a.m. instead of 10:11 a.m. We were able to get a full refund with no penalties. So we cancelled all 4 on that flight and booked an earlier flight (also nonstop) from LAX to YVR that was $52 less per person!!

We had to wait 30 minutes on line to speak with someone at Alaska Airlines, but the wait was well worth it!!

[chipster]

8 minutes? And they gave you a refund? Wow. That surprises me actually.