We're Giddy for Alaska (and so are they)

Alaska Airlines has long been touted as one of the pioneers of airlines web sales, largely credited with being one of the first airlines to sell tickets on the web. It looks like some significant milestones were reached a few months ago


"During October, Alaskaair.com generated 50 percent of [Alaska/Horizon] total revenues for the first time. The site also passed the $1 billion annual sales mark in October, earlier than the mark has ever been met in previous years."

"Having finally broken the 50-percent mark, Mark Guerette and his E-Commerce team have their sights set on generating 60 percent of AAG's total revenues. "Unless we completely change our business model, that may be our high-water mark," Guerette said. "Many big companies still prefer to book through their own managed corporate travel arrangements and there will always be a certain percentage of customers who prefer the high-touch service provided by our reservations sales agents."


That's actually a pretty interesting comment and pretty shrewd on the part of Alaska. They recognize their customer mix, and their customers' preferred distribution channels, but have done what they can to maximize their direct distribution.

One thing FMV has to point out - If there is a story about Alaska Airlines and the Internet, it’s federally mandated that two things must be mentioned. We’re serious about this – happens every year:

1) It must be mentioned that Alaska Airlines was the first airline to sell tickets on the Internet to the legendary “Family of Four” from Olympic Peninsula.

2) There has to be a quote telling us how they happy they were when they remember the good ol' days…

- January 9, 2008 - Looking back to the launch of alaskaair.com in December 1995, "I remember all of us high-fiving because we sold 50 tickets in a week over the Web," said Guerette. "Now, we average more than 10,000 per day.

- December 15, 2006, - "We were ecstatic and high-fiving each other when we sold 50 tickets in a week," said Guerette, remembering an early milestone in the Web site's progress.

- December 28th, 2005 - "When Mark Guerette and his information technology crew at Alaska Airlines saw the first online reservations trickle in over their servers 10 years ago today, they were practically giddy with accomplishment."


So hats off to Alaska, and the travel journalism industry, both for maintaining a solid track record of consistency and success. Trust us, we are ecstatic and high fiving each other here at FMV HQ in your honor. We maybe haven't been this giddy since Flavor Flav hooked up with Bridgett Neilson on Surreal Life. Also, we're printing up some T-shirts, "Web Sales We'll Never Remember, Friends We'll Never Forget". Let us know what size you all need.