Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from Michael Linenberg – Merrill Lynch.
Michael Linenberg – Merrill Lynch
Two questions first, Bill, you had talked about the Delta relationship and you also highlighted the fact that in the past Alaska has multiple partners. Going forward should we anticipate that the extent of the various agreements that you have with other carriers – will they remain in place or will there be potential restrictions?
Could we see dual co-chairs in some markets, Delta and another carrier? And then just as part of this question maybe a stab on incremental revenue that you could potentially get from this now that you have the preferred carrier partner status with Delta?
William Ayer
Maybe I'll just start on the first part of that and really it's just I think the recognition on our part and our partner's part that these things have been good for all of us. And from our standpoint these alliances have given us a just a broader network of kind of a virtual network globally. And that's been a really important competitive tool for us as we continue to grow our network at Alaskan Horizon.
So as long as they work for both parties that's the thing that keeps them going into the future and that's our hope right now. And on the revenue side...
Bradley D. Tilden
Mike, its Brad, we haven't closed revenue to these things. But I guess I would say the nature of our network, that connecting traffic is important. I think it's important to know that we had an alliance relationship with both Delta and Northwest before. And so what we have now is an expanded relation with the new Delta, and we're very excited about that. But, as Bill said, we're also excited about our other alliance relationships, and we're optimistic that this is going to be good for us and help us grow, and bring more passengers into our network in the future.
William S. Ayer
The other focus we have, Mike, is on customers. And I think the world is full of co-chairs, and some of them work really well for customers, and some of them don't. Some of them are just kind of window dressing with a code on a reservation screen, and with our partners, we work really hard on making sure these things really deliver value for customers. So we work closely to build schedules that connect. We look at the hub airports and make sure there's enough connect time for customers that baggage follows the customer and makes the connection, that the miles get credited correctly, and so forth.
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