Originally Posted by
9mikemike
You have to have an environment before you can sour it….Alaska Airlines is as close to a “perpetual motion” machine as you will find…Nearly unaffected by external influences such as snow, employee morale, staffing, competition, a plandemic…economic meltdowns, soaring fuel prices….And so on. They have operated in my 23+ years with the virtual bumpers “up”..I believe that they will continue to roll the game unaffected by the variety of current hazards found along the way. There is no real way to understand it or quantify it…
I can't disagree because history has proven you right about Alaska. However there are a dozen, maybe more, airlines that were foundational and household names until they disappeared into thin air. Also, it hasn't been a bunch of times, but at least two times I know of, Alaska has merged with another airline to grow. There is really no reason that Alaska could cease to exist if they make the wrong decisions and it is entirely plausible and likely they buy or merge with another airline.
I would not say AS has been unaffected by external influences, but they have done lots of things right in the decisions they have made when faced with external influences. However I do think we are at an inflection point. Attrition and the hiring outlook is very dire. The industry is in uncharted waters right now, so by proxy, so is Alaska Airlines.