ALK - Alaska Air Group: Turnaround Is Underway
2024-06-16 07:15:51 ET
Summary
- Alaska Airlines committed to improving its first quarter financial performance but that effort was interrupted by the MAX 9 accident.
- Alaska's recovery and current performance in line with other U.S. airlines, focusing on premium travel services.
- Alaska's potential merger with Hawaiian Airlines could lead to improved financial performance and expansion opportunities.
In the midst of the losses at Alaska Air Group ( ALK ) that occurred as a result of the in-flight failure of a door plug on a new Boeing ( BA ) MAX 9 operating by ALK, investors who paid attention to Alaska Airlines ((ALK))’s first quarter 2024 earnings presentation noted a key detail: the company was committed to turning around its tradition of losing money in the first quarter of the year. An airline that is based in the Pacific Northwest with a significant presence in Alaska has structural challenges that make it hard for it to make money in the winter but one of the company’s goals has been to change that historic trajectory. The MAX 9 accident not only grounded dozens of aircraft and forced ALK to remove double-digit percentages of capacity from its network but it also set in place a number of other events that could have crippled the company for years. Yet, ALK management has laid out not only a plan to deal with the short-term challenges from the accident and its aftermath but also to continue to address its profitability which is no longer at the top of the industry as it once was....
Alaska Air Group: Turnaround Is Underway