Release #01.88
August 31, 2001

SEATTLE --- The 1,461 pilots at Alaska Airlines, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), have ratified the tentative agreement reached between ALPA and Alaska management earlier this month. Of the pilots eligible to participate in the telephone balloting process, 97.2 % participated in the vote and 82.5% voted in favor the deal.

"Our members have long sought more involvement in determining their future and their overwhelming participation in this ratification vote affirms that," said Captain John Sluys, chairman of the Alaska master executive council. "This positive mid-term contract adjustment is part of our ongoing plan to improve and protect the pay, benefits and working conditions of all Alaska Airlines pilots."

The ratified agreement provides an across-the-board pay increase of 11.05 percent retroactive to June 1, followed by a 5 percent increase in 2002 and 4 percent increases in 2003 and 2004. In addition, it extends the contract between the carrier and its 1,461 pilots by two years, to April 30, 2005.

The agreement resulted after talks began between Alaska and ALPA over rates of pay for the airline’s new Boeing 737-900 aircraft. In May 2001, a neutral arbitrator ruled that pilots be paid an 11.05 percent increase over the current rate of pay, with an additional 5 percent in 2002, for flying the -900. For operational efficiency and internal equity reasons, Alaska had sought an across-the-board pay increase for pilots on both the MD80 and Boeing 737 aircraft that Alaska currently operates. The agreement between the Association and management was reached on August 3.

Alaska Airlines pilots operate Boeing 737 and MD80 aircraft from pilot bases in Seattle, Los Angeles and Anchorage.

Celebrating its 70^th anniversary, ALPA is the world's oldest and largest pilots union, representing 66,000 members at 47 airlines in the U.S. and Canada. Visit the ALPA Website at http://cf.alpa.org.

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ALPA Contact: John Mazor, (703) 481-4440