Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air employees receive nearly 3.5 weeks extra pay in bonuses

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Jan 25, 2019, 08:00 ET

SEATTLE, Jan. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Employees of Alaska Air Group companies Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air are receiving $120 million in incentive bonuses today. For most employees, this equates to more than 6.5 percent of their annual pay in 2018.

The company's annual bonus, called Performance Based Pay (PBP), is determined by meeting or exceeding specific company-wide goals for safety, customer satisfaction, cost control, customer loyalty and profit.

"After a year of hard work, we're incredibly grateful for our 22,000 fantastic employees who go the extra mile to put safety first and deliver the kind-hearted service we're known for," said Ben Minicucci, Alaska Airlines' president and COO. "For the 10^th year in a row, our employees have earned bonuses by exceeding targets for meeting our annual and monthly goals. On behalf of the entire leadership team, thank you for another incredible year."

The PBP bonus is in addition to the approximately $15.7 million in monthly operational bonuses that employees earned over 2018 for achieving monthly on-time and customer satisfaction goals. The combined monthly, annual and one-time bonuses paid to employees total $136 million.

Geographic breakdown:

About $66 million in annual bonuses — nearly 55 percent of the total — is being paid to Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air employees across Washington
$28 million — or 24 percent of the total — is going to employees throughout California
$12 million is being paid to employees in Oregon
$8 million is going to employees throughout the state of Alaska

The employee bonuses come two weeks after the airline announced its 2019 jobs forecast and Washington economic impact study, highlighting the $7 billion Alaska has contributed to the state economy. Learn more about the study at https://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/2019-hiring-forecast/.

Alaska Airlines and its regional partners fly 44 million guests a year to more than 115 destinations, with an average of 1,200 daily flights across the United States and to Mexico, Canada and Costa Rica. With Alaska and Alaska Global Partners, guests can earn and redeem miles on flights to more than 900 destinations worldwide. Alaska Airlines ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Carriers in North America" in the J.D. Power North America Airline Satisfaction Study for 11 consecutive years from 2008 to 2018. Learn about Alaska's award-winning service at newsroom.alaskaair.com and blog.alaskaair.com. Alaska Airlines, Virgin America and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK).