Alaska Airlines will cut eight round-trip daily flights this summer, suspend another to Miami and delay the start of new service to Dallas-Fort Worth, the company said Friday.
The airline's chief executive, Bill Ayer, said the schedule changes were "a temporary measure to get our operation back on track." Increased summer flying and record loads have contributed to more delays and cancellations, he said.
Alaska plans to eliminate the eight round-trip flights from its summer schedule, which ends Sept. 10. The flights are between Anchorage and Los Angeles, Anchorage and Phoenix, Seattle and Anchorage, Las Vegas and Seattle, and Orlando and Seattle.
The Seattle-based airline also is suspending its one daily round-trip flight to Miami until the end of October, and postponing new service to Dallas-Fort Worth until Sept. 12.
Travelers who had booked those flights will be contacted by the company to arrange new flights, Alaska said.
At a global transportation conference in Anchorage this week, Ayer told investors that costs for the nation's ninth-largest airline are coming into line with revenue, despite a loss of $164 million in the past four years.
