By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Alaska Airlines has announced reductions in service for January but a company spokesman says that doesn’t apply to flights within Alaska or to and from Sitka at this time.
“Intra-Alaska service is not part of the current schedule reduction, but I would add we are seeing an unprecedented amount of employee sick calls, so that could impact future flights,” Tim Thompson said in an email to the Sentinel.
The Seattle-based airline, which has routes throughout the U.S., with service also to Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica, has announced a 10 percent reduction in flights through the end of January.
“As we have entered 2022, the continued impacts of omicron have been disruptive in all our lives and unprecedented employee sick calls have impacted our ability to operate our airline reliably,” Thompson said.
On a followup question about Sitka service, he said, “There is no reduction in current flight schedules to/from Sitka for those destinations.” (He had been asked specifically about Seattle and Anchorage, and previously had addressed “intra-Alaska” travel.)
The news release said that the goal of the 10 percent reduction through the month of January is to “build more reliability back into our operation as we deal with the impacts of omicron and during a time when guests generally fly less.”
The 10 percent reduction “will give us the flexibility and capacity needed to reset while continued flexible travel policies enable guests to adjust their plans accordingly,” Thompson said. “This will also give us time and space to find our path forward together with COVID-19 as a continued reality in our business and in our world.”
Alaska Airlines is by far the largest air carrier in the state, and one of the largest on the West Coast.
