5 Brands that could disappear

#5 on that list is Alaska Airlines

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/topstocks/5-brands-that-could-disappear-in-2015/ss-BBgl9Y7?ocid=ASUDHP#image=2

Comments?

Alaska is my airline of choice.

I'm currently Gold

Through corporate program, I can switch over to Delta and maintain equal status. Should I get ahead of the game and make the switch?

Is a merger or buyout with Delta inevitable?

Kind of a crummy article. The article starts about how strong AS are in "....especially in Salt Lake City...", whereas in reality they only started service to SLC fairly recently. Are Alaska a powerhouse on the west coast (and Hawaii)? yes; is someone going to buy them? Probably not, airlines tend to merge, not be purchased in a hostile action, and AS really don't have any requirement to merge.

I wonder if these are the same people who said that Oil would be at $200.00 a barrel today. It's anyone's guess. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Keith

Delta is so busy horning in on Alaska's turf that there's an equal amount of speculation that AS might split the sheet on the Delta partnership (also Air France and KLM, both in Skyteam like DL) and maybe even join Oneworld. But I'd be surprised to see Alaska's "brand" go away. Even if they were bought (highly unlikely) you'd probably still see Alaska's livery. The smiling Eskimo is one of the most widely-recognized logos out there.

Yeah, the comment about SLC did make me chuckle. There was an occasional Horizon commuter flight until last summer, when Alaska started SLC-SEA flights. Then, they added some of the old Morris Air routes - LAS, PDX, BOI, SAN. Those also compete directly with WN flights (who DID take over the old Morris routes)… It's all tit for tat, when Delta trying to make big inroads into the SEA market and turning it into a TPAC hub.

If anything a stronger partnership with AA would be more likely. Maybe even joining Oneworld in the future.

Go back a year (or two), and there was good speculation that DL migh acquire AS. But the AA/US merger made it clear the government would make a DL/AS merger very difficult or impossible. That's when DL accelerated their strategy to build more routes out of SEA.

IMHO this isn't a big threat to AS. They are the "hometown" airline with fierce loyalty up in Alaska. AS is the only major air service to many towns and villages in Interior Alaska and way out on the Aleutians. It's interesting to see their 737 Combis being loaded with pallets and oil equipment in the front and passengers in back, and the plane equipped to use gravel runways. That isn't where DL has any interest in competing. On "mainline" flights, AS has almost hourly ANC-SEA flights; also not DL's core market. DL is starting international routes out of SEA which are fed from their domestic routes. AS is a good source of passengers to feed into DL's international network so a partnership is far more likely than an acquisition.

The one area I see DL providing stiff competition to AS is to Hawaii and possibly Mexico.