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Alaska Airlines ranked first in on-time performance for the fourth month in a row among the 10 largest U.S. carriers (based on domestic revenue passenger miles), according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) monthly Air Travel Consumer Report released today.

During July, 87.2 percent of Alaska Airlines flights arrived on time or within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time - a 7.3 percentage point improvement over the airline's July 2008 performance and 9.6 percentage points higher than the industry average of 77.6 percent for the month.

"Our July result continues the outstanding on-time performance we delivered in the second quarter of the year and is thanks to Alaska's hard-working employees, who have remained focused on running a great operation and providing excellent service to our customers," said Ben Minicucci, Alaska Airlines' chief operating officer.

Alaska's sister carrier, Horizon Air, also improved its on-time performance in July, with 88.3 percent of its flights arriving on time, compared to 86.3 percent in July 2008.

With hubs in Anchorage, Alaska; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and Los Angeles; Alaska Airlines is the tenth-largest domestic carrier and averages 416 flights a day. The airline ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Network Carriers" in the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 and 2009 North America Airline Satisfaction Studies(SM).

The DOT's air travel report covers 19 airlines and is available online at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/atcr09.htm.

Note: Information is based on the latest public DOT T100 report.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK), together serve more than 90 cities through an expansive network in Alaska, the Lower 48, Hawaii, Canada and Mexico. For reservations, visit alaskaair.com. For more news and information, visit the Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air Newsroom at alaskaair.com/newsroom.

Source: Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines today announced initial results of its Inflight Wi-Fi service trial, which was launched on Feb. 26, 2009. More than 2,100 passengers logged on and used Alaska Airlines Inflight Wi-Fi. Of those passengers who tried the service and completed a survey during or after their flight, more than 96 percent intend to use it again.

Additional key findings of the survey include:

• More than 78 percent of those who tried the Inflight Wi-Fi service are either "extremely likely" or "very likely" to recommend it.
• More than 75 percent felt the service was either "excellent" or "very good."
• About 35 percent of passengers accessed the service with portable devices such as smart phones. Other passengers surfed the Web on devices such as notebook computers.

Some of the most popular activities customers used the service for included checking e-mail, downloading and listening to music, watching streaming media and interacting on social networks.

"Alaska Airlines Inflight Wi-Fi was fast and consistent," said passenger C.J. Adams of Marysville, Wash. "As a frequent business traveler, I was thrilled to have Internet access while in flight and appreciated the opportunity to work in real-time - it even made my flight seem shorter. I will definitely use this service on future Alaska Airlines flights."

Alaska Airlines will begin evaluating pricing models for the service this week and will continue to gather feedback from customers. "Our most important consideration in determining the price of Alaska Airlines Inflight Wi-Fi is providing value to our passengers," said Steve Jarvis, Alaska's vice president of marketing, sales and customer experience. "The initial feedback we're getting is overwhelmingly positive. We will continue to optimize the service and listen closely to our customers to find the right price that is both competitive with other airlines and fits comfortably within our passengers' budgets."

The airline plans to set a final price for the service later this year. Passengers will be able to purchase the service using all major credit cards via the Inflight Wi-Fi secure payment process.

SOURCE Alaska Airlines