Alaska Airlines N799AS by Gillphoto
This gallery was created to be part of my online, Carr-Woolman Flight Appreciation Center. My online center dedicated to the history of North Central Airlines and Delta Air Lines other airlines of my liking and aviation past, present and future.
This gallery was created to be part of my online, Carr-Woolman Flight Appreciation Center. It is dedicated to the history of North Central Airlines and Delta Air Lines and aviation past, present and future. This observation deck gallery is for Alaska Airlines.
Alaska Airlines is my third favortie airline of all-time. In the 1990s, I had the opportunity to fly Alaska. It was always a first class experience, even though I was in coach. They offered some of the best service I had ever seen. I remember them going out of their way at Burbank to get my late mother on the plane safely. They hauled her wheelchair up the air stairs as just one example. North Central used to say, "Good people make our airline great." I felt the same when travelling on Alaska. You felt it from the curb to the baggage claim.
To me they are the last of the heritage of the regionals, the airlines that specialized in only certain parts of the country, before the deregulaton free for all of the 1980s. You may see names like Air Wisconsin or Frontier still. These airlines are either contract fliers like Air Wisconsin for United Express or Frontier as just a nameplate for parent company Republic Airways. These airlines may fly just about anywhere as well, not to just one region.
Alaska in the last decade has spread out some across the America, but retain their core on the west coast of North America. Then, there is the core within the core. Alaska is one of the few to own and operate their own regional feeder. Known as Horizon Air, they serve the smaller communites linking them to Alaska's major routes. Like the parent, Horizon is a class act. When I look at the Alaska route map these days, I think of North Central's final route map. North Central was starting to expand beyond Herman the duck's midwestern nest. Eventually, Herman too flew from coast to coast as Republic Airlines (not to be confused with today's Republic Airways). Sadly, Republic may have reached too far. They certainly did finanically and this lead to a takeover by Northwest Airlines. I really hope that the same fate does not befall Alaska. Rumors crop up from time to time that this or that major would like to swallow up the Eskimo. I hope that Alaska's managment team keeps the proud airline own their own, an independent heritage from the great state that is their namesake. To see more images from this observation deck of Alaska Airlines go to: Carr-Woolman Flight Observation Deck 5. Also, to visit Alaska's world, you may proceed to the Concourse A and gates A3 and A4 located on the left hand side of this page here at the Carr-Woolman Flight Appreciation Center.
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