Alaska Airlines began as a bush service that flew whenever someone needed a ride
The airline that now links the American West Coast to more than 100 destinations started with no timetable at all. McGee Airways flew between Anchorage and Bristol Bay only when a passenger, a load of freight or a mail sack turned up, and its founder later ran a liquor store and flew bottles to remote villages.
Linious McGee's business struggled in the Depression, when Anchorage had more airlines than customers. In 1934 he sold it for 50,000 dollars to Star Air Service and went into mining, then returned in 1937 to run his liquor sideline. The company changed owners repeatedly; a New York businessman, Raymond Marshall, bought it in 1941 and snapped up three small bush carriers. The Alaska Airlines name was adopted on May 2, 1944, narrowly ahead of a rival applicant.
Wartime was lean. Pilots were scarce, and those who stayed often paid for fuel from their own pockets. After the war, president James Wooten bought surplus military planes, and Alaska became the first carrier certified to fly DC-3s on skis. A worldwide charter business briefly made it profitable until regulators shut it down in 1949 for safety violations. That same year its crews joined Operation Magic Carpet, flying Yemenite Jews some 3,000 miles to Israel along routes that avoided Arab airspace.
Regulators forced Marshall out in 1951 but granted routes from Anchorage and Fairbanks to Seattle and Portland. Under Charles Willis Jr., a decorated naval aviator, the airline bought a Convair 880 jet with no money down, flew the first civilian version of the Hercules cargo plane, and leaned on gimmicks, dressing stewardesses in Edwardian costume for Alaska's 1967 centennial. After three years of secret talks, it ran charter flights to Soviet Siberia between 1970 and 1972.
Today it is the fifth-largest airline in North America by passengers, based at SeaTac near Seattle, and a member of the Oneworld alliance. J. D. Power has rated it highest in customer satisfaction among traditional airlines for twelve years running, and in 2024 its parent company bought Hawaiian Airlines.
Source: Alaska Airlines
