Alaska Air Group News

The parent company of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air believes the company's smaller size relative to some of its bigger rivals is an advantage in a financially challenging environment.

Alaska Airlines said it will inaugurate service to Hawaii from the California cities of Sacramento and San Jose beginning in March 2010.

Airline stocks climbed early Thursday, with Southwest Airlines reporting October traffic growth and fuller planes, backing industry sentiment that the decline in passengers has hit bottom.

Dallas, TX - JetBlue Airways Corporation is one of the most active gainers in today`s trading session as it surges over 8.49% to $5.24 after crude oil fell 2% today.

Continental Airlines, Inc. soars 8.77% to $12.77 on over 11.53 best airline stocks million shares after Crude-oil futures were down 2% to about $78 a barrel in electronic trading.

Among the shares expected to see active trade in Wednesday's session are those of Alvarion, Con-Way, Hartford Financial, Huntsman, Kraft, Time Warner, Tyco Electronics, UAL and Zebra Technologies.

Delta Air Lines announced on Monday that together with Alaska Air Group subsidiaries Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air it is expanding codeshare access for customers at Portland International Airport.

Alaska Air Group Inc. said Tuesday that its planes were fuller in October as passenger traffic rose 3 percent at its Alaska Airlines unit while the carrier trimmed available seating.

Airline stocks were mixed Tuesday with major U.S. carriers in the green after Continental Airlines posted its second month of traffic growth for October with a slower revenue-decline rate.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air on Monday said they have expanded an existing agreement with Delta Air Lines giving passengers access to a wider selection of destinations.

JetBlue said Thursday it will boost its service from Boston Logan by 30 percent by next summer, as bigger carriers pull back and competition from rival Southwest heats up.

US Airways will reduce flying and cut 1,000 jobs starting next year in a plan that will leave it focused on its four key hubs.

For U.S. airlines last quarter, small was good. The three smallest of the major carriers - Alaska Air Group Inc., JetBlue Airways Corp.

Airline stocks fell Friday, leaving the sector with a 7% decline as oil prices pushed past $81 a barrel, taking the shine off of cautiously optimistic outlooks in a week packed with quarterly earnings reports.

Shares of major airlines fell hard Wednesday as oil prices continued to spike. Benchmark crude for December delivery rose $2.25 to settle at $81.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Improvements it has made in on-time performance and being insulated from the slump in international travel helped Alaska Air Group post a profit for the third quarter.

The recession has put the major U.S. airlines into two camps the profitable ones that have low costs and a domestic focus, and the money-losing ones with higher expenses and big networks that are under global pressure.

Delta Air Lines today announced a series of schedule enhancements to strengthen its international network for summer 2010.

THE STANDARD & POOR'S 500 Index was up by 1.5% last week. The airlines underperformed and were down by 3.7% this week and year-to-date are up by 7.3%. Transportation companies outperformed the market and up by 2.7% last week and are up 9.0% year-to-date. Our top picks this week are AirTran Holdings and Alaska Air Group ahead of the earnings; ...

CEOs of some of Washington's biggest companies, including Alaska Air Group Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp.