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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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SeaTac's Alaska Air Group, despite reduced passenger traffic and lower fares, today announced profits with special items of $87.6 million in the third quarter.
That compares with a loss of $86.5 million in the same quarter in 2008.
This year's third quarter, traditionally the busiest quarter for the airline, was "one of the best quarters we've had in a very long time," Alaska Chairman Bill Ayer told analysts and reporters in a conference call.
Without the effects of special items such as fuel hedges, the company made $83 million in the quarter or $2.33 a share. Analysts polled by Zacks Research had predicted profits of $2.26 a share.
The company's turnaround was fueled literally by a huge difference in fuel prices between this year's third quarter and last's. During last year's third quarter, oil prices hit $147 a barrel. During this year's prices were half of that or less.
The airline holding company, parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, also reworked its schedule to cut capacity in weaker markets such as California, Arizona and Nevada and to expand to new markets such a additional islands in Hawaii, Houston and Austin. The airline begins flying from Sea-Tac to Atlanta Friday.
"Our work to reduce capacity to better match demand, redeploy aircraft to into promising new markets and achieve record operational reliability contributed to our best quarterly financial performance in many years," said Ayer.
While improving its profits, both Alaska and Horizon achieved better on-time performance. Alaska was the top on-time performer among major domestic airlines every month this year from April through September, and Horizon was near the top among smaller carriers.
New fees for checked baggage also contributed to the company's profit margin. Since the July 7 imposition of those fees, the airlines have received $23 million in new revenues without a noticeable diminishment in passenger market share to the only major airline that doesn't impose checked baggage fees, Southwest.
Alaska's profits came during a quarter when many of its large and small competitors were reporting losses or, at best, small profits.
Delta Air Lines, the world's largest carrier, reported third quarter losses of $161 million this week. American Airlines' parent, AMR, said its losses for the July through September period were $395 million.
Phoenix's US Airways lost $80 million in the same period. Continental Airlines reported a narrower loss, $18 million, in the third quarter. United Airlines was in the red $57 million for the quarter.
Southwest Airlines said it lost $16 million in the quarter including one-time charges.
On the positive side, JetBlue Airways said it made $15 million in the quarter. AirTran Holdings of Orlando reported a net profit of $10.4 million.
