USA: Alaska Airlines Goes To El Paso

Alaska Airlines launched operations from El Paso (ELP) on 19 February, with the carrier commencing flights to the airport from San Diego (SAN) and Seattle-Tacoma (SEA).

The airline will operate both routes daily using its fleet of E175s. There is no direct competition on the 2,198-kilometre sector from Seattle-Tacoma, however Southwest Airlines already offers eight weekly flights on the 1,109-kilometre link between San Diego and El Paso.

According to airport data, El Paso handled just over 3.26 million passengers in 2018, with this representing an 11% increase versus the 2.93 million that were handled during the previous year.

Alaska Airlines becomes the airport’s seventh scheduled airline, joining Southwest Airlines (46% market share of passengers in 2018), American Airlines (31%), United Airlines (13%), Delta Air Lines (6.9%), Frontier Airlines (1.9%) and Allegiant Air (1.5%).

Alaska Airlines is a major United States airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area of the state of Washington.

It is the fifth-largest airline in the United States when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and number of destinations served.

Alaska, together with its regional partners, operates a large domestic route network, primarily focused on connecting cities on the West Coast of the United States to over one hundred destinations in the contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Costa Rica, and Mexico.

Alaska Airlines is not a member of any of the three major airline alliances. However, it has codeshare agreements with 17 airlines, including member airlines of oneworld, SkyTeam, Star Alliance, and unaffiliated airlines.

Regional service is operated by sister airline Horizon Air and independent carrier SkyWest Airlines.

The airline operates its largest hub at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, and it also operates hubs in Anchorage, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco and focus cities at San Diego and San Jose.

As of 2018, the airline employs over 21,000 people and been ranked by J. D. Power and Associates as having the highest customer satisfaction of the traditional airlines for eleven consecutive years.

Through the airline's parent company, Alaska Air Group, it is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol ALK and is part of the Dow Jones Transportation Average and the S&P 500 Index.

For the fiscal year 2017, Alaska Airlines reported earnings of US$1.028 billion, with an annual revenue of US$7.933 billion, an increase of 33.8% over the previous fiscal cycle. Alaska Airlines shares traded at over $63 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at US$7.5 billion in October 2018.

Alaska Airlines has 23,400 employees. Alaska's pilot group is represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, International and its over 5,872 flight attendants are represented by the Association of Flight Attendants.

Since May 2005, the airline's baggage-handling operations have been outsourced to Menzies Aviation. This was in response to rejection of a contract between IAM the union which represented the baggage handlers, and Alaska Airlines.

It also allowed the airline to save an estimated $13 million a year. In late 2016, Alaska Airlines created a wholly owned subsidiary McGee Air Services which would compete with Menzies Aviation for ground handling contracts in select Alaska cities.


Tourism Observer

MEXICAN: El Chapo Moved To Mexico’s Lowest-Rated Federal Prison

Officials said the drug lord was moved so security can be reinforced at Altiplano prison.

Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been moved to Mexico’s lowest-rated federal prison. But a local governor insists the country’s most notorious criminal and two-time escapee is not about to stage yet another escape.

El Chapo was suddenly moved on Saturday morning from Altiplano—Mexico’s highest-security prison and the jail he escaped from via an underground tunnel in July last year. He was sent to Cefereso No. 9, which was rated the worst among Mexico’s federal prisons in a 2015 quality report from the country’s National Human Rights Commission.

Cefereso No. 9 is located in Ciudad Juarez, a city near El Paso, and it sits in a region that is a stronghold of El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel, the country’s most infamous drug cartel.

El Chapo, who was put back in prison after his capture in January, was moved so work could be done to “reinforce security” at Altiplano prison, located west of Mexico City, according to reports. Mexico’s interior ministry also said it regularly moves prisoners between facilities as part of a policy introduced last year after El Chapo’s escape from Altiplano.

“The decision of having him brought here is because there will not be any escape,” said Gov. Cesar Duarte of Chihuahua state, where Cefereso No. 9 is located. A Mexican security official sayed El Chapo is being held in a maximum-security wing at the prison and is monitored via camera 24-hours a day.

But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said the prison is less secure than the Altiplano facility.

Cefereso No. 9 received a score of 6.63 out of 10 in a report last year by the Mexican government’s National Human Rights Commission, making it the lowest-rated prison out of 21 federal facilities. The prison received low marks on the issue of guaranteeing prisoners a “dignified” stay, and average marks for ensuring prisoners’ well-being and safety. Like many Mexican prisons, it also suffers from overcrowding.

Altiplano prison, by comparison, came in as the 10th best in the report, scoring 7.32.

El Chapo, whose real name is Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, made his high-profile escape from Altiplano prison last July via a tunnel that led from the shower of his cell to a construction site almost a mile away. The tunnel was equipped with lighting and a motorcycle on rails that was likely used to move dirt out of the passage. He had earlier escaped from another facility in 2001.