Horizon Air to Cheer Home Teams in Idaho and Montana: 3 Q400s to Be Painted in Public University Colors

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Oct 04, 2010, 03:00 ET

SEATTLE, Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Horizon Air announced today it will soon fly 76-seat Q400 turboprops with university colors and marks of three additional public universities: the University of Idaho, the University of Montana and Montana State University.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100917/SF67094LOGO)

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100917/SF67094LOGO)

The aircraft will be painted one at a time starting in early November (in the order shown above). The painting will take about 10 days per aircraft, and each aircraft will begin regular passenger service two days after donning its new colors. These Q400s were scheduled for repainting, so the new looks are being provided at no cost to the universities or additional painting cost to Horizon.

Horizon has flown to the airports serving these universities for many years. The airline began service to Pullman-Moscow (near the University of Idaho) almost 29 years ago, Missoula (home to the University of Montana) 24 years ago, and Bozeman (home to Montana State University) nearly 21 years ago.

The new planes will join five other university-themed aircraft launched by Horizon since early 2008 – representing Boise State University, Oregon State University, the University of Oregon, the University of Washington and Washington State University.

"In the nearly 25 years I have been with Horizon, I can think of nothing that has generated as much excitement among our customers as our university-themed aircraft," said Dan Russo, Horizon's vice president of marketing and communications. "Now, with the University of Idaho and Montana's largest public universities joining our fleet, we look forward to thrilling even more school fans."

Unveiling events are planned for the following dates: University of Idaho (at Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport) on Nov. 10, University of Montana (at Missoula International Airport/Johnson-Bell Field) on Nov. 19, and Montana State University (at Gallatin Field in Bozeman) on Nov. 30. Specific times and event information will be released when finalized.

Horizon serves 45 cities throughout California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Baja California Sur (Mexico), and British Columbia and Alberta (Canada). Together, Horizon Air and Alaska Airlines serve more than 90 cities and are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE: ALK).

Artist renderings of the planned aircraft liveries are available in high-resolution format by visiting the Horizon Air Newsroom at http://newsroom.horizonair.com.

SOURCE Horizon Air