Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air 2009 Annual Report Download - page 155

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
The Board of Directors and Shareholders
Alaska Air Group, Inc.:
We have audited the accompanying consolidated
balance sheets of Alaska Air Group, Inc.
and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2009 and
2008, and the related consolidated statements
of operations, shareholders’ equity, and cash
flows for each of the years in the three-year
period ended December 31, 2009. In connection
with our audits of the consolidated financial
statements, we also have audited financial
statement schedule II. These consolidated
financial statements and financial statement
schedule are the responsibility of the Company’s
management. Our responsibility is to express an
opinion on these consolidated financial
statements and financial statement schedule
based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the
standards of the Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board (United States). Those
standards require that we plan and perform the
audit to obtain reasonable assurance about
whether the financial statements are free of
material misstatement. An audit includes
examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting
the amounts and disclosures in the financial
statements. An audit also includes assessing
the accounting principles used and significant
estimates made by management, as well as
evaluating the overall financial statement
presentation. We believe that our audits provide
a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the consolidated financial
statements referred to above present fairly, in all
material respects, the financial position of
Alaska Air Group, Inc. and subsidiaries as of
December 31, 2009 and 2008, and the results
of their operations and their cash flows for each
of the years in the three-year period ended
December 31, 2009, in conformity with
U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
Also in our opinion, the related financial
statement schedule, when considered in relation
to the basic consolidated financial statements
taken as a whole, present fairly, in all material
respects, the information set forth thereon.
The Company adopted the provisions of SFAS
No. 157, Fair Value Measurements (included in
FASB ASC Topic 320, Investments-Debt and
Equity Securities) and the measurement date
provisions of SFAS No. 158, Employers’
Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension and
Other Postretirement Plans (included in FASB
ASC Topic 960, Plan Accounting – Defined
Benefit Pension Plans), effective January 1,
2008.
We also have audited, in accordance with the
standards of the Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board (United States), Alaska Air
Group, Inc.’s internal control over financial
reporting as of December 31, 2009, based on
criteria established in Internal Control –
Integrated Framework issued by the Committee
of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway
Commission (COSO), and our report dated
February 18, 2010, expressed an unqualified
opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s
internal control over financial reporting.
/s/ KPMG LLP
Seattle, Washington
February 18, 2010
59
ŠForm 10-K