Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air 2009 Annual Report Download - page 105

partnership with carriers from two major
global alliances (Oneworld and Skyteam);
• giving us access to more connecting traffic
from other airlines; and
• providing members of our alliance partners’
frequent flyer programs an opportunity to
travel on Alaska and Horizon while earning
mileage credit in our partners’ programs.
Most of our codeshare relationships are free-sell
codeshares, where the marketing carrier sells
seats on the operating carrier’s flights from the
operating carrier’s inventory, but takes no
inventory risk. Our marketing agreements have
various termination dates, and at any time, one
or more may be in the process of renegotiation.
Our marketing alliances with other airlines as of
December 31, 2009 are as follows:
Frequent
Flyer
Agreement
Codeshare—
Alaska
Flight #
on Flights
Operated by
Other Airline
Codeshare—
Other Airline
Flight # On
Flights
Operated by
Alaska/
Horizon
Major U.S. or
International Airlines
American Airlines/
American Eagle . . . Yes Yes Yes
Air France .......... Yes No Yes
British Airways ...... Yes No No
Cathay Pacific
Airways .......... Yes No No
Delta Air Lines/Delta
Connection (2) .... Yes Yes Yes
KLM .............. Yes No Yes
Korean Air ......... Yes No Yes
Lan S.A. ........... Yes No Yes
Air Pacific (1) ....... Yes No Yes
Qantas ............ Yes No Yes
Regional Airlines
Era Alaska ......... Yes(1) Yes No
PenAir ............ Yes(1) Yes No
(1) These airlines do not have their own frequent flyer
program. However, Alaska’s Mileage Plan members can
earn and redeem miles on these airlines’ route systems.
(2) Alaska has codeshare agreements with the Delta
Connection carriers Skywest and ASA as part of its
agreement with Delta. This agreement also includes
former Northwest Airlines flights.
COMPETITION
Competition in the airline industry is intense. We
believe the principal competitive factors in the
industry that are important to customers are:
• safety record and reputation,
• flight schedules,
• fares,
• customer service,
• routes served,
• frequent flyer programs,
• on-time arrivals,
• baggage handling,
• on-board amenities,
• type of aircraft, and
• code-sharing relationships.
Together, Alaska and Horizon carry approximately
3.5% of all U.S. domestic passenger traffic. We
compete with one or more domestic or foreign
airlines on most of our routes, including
Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air
Lines, Continental Airlines, American Airlines, US
Airways, JetBlue Airways, Virgin America,
Allegiant and regional affiliates associated with
some of these carriers.
Due to its short-haul markets, Horizon also
competes with ground transportation in many
markets, including train, bus and automobile
transportation. Both carriers, to some extent,
also compete with technology such as video
conferencing and internet-based meeting tools
that have resulted in a change in business
travel.
TICKET DISTRIBUTION
Airline tickets are distributed through three
primary channels:
•Alaskaair.com. It is less expensive for us to
sell through this direct channel and, as a
result, we continue to take steps to drive
more business to our website. In addition,
we believe this channel is preferable from a
branding and customer-relationship
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ŠForm 10-K