Oregon Public Broadcasting

The parent company of Alaska and Horizon airlines announced Thursday that it lost money in the fourth quarter and during the full year of 2008.  But the losses were less than Wall Street expected and the stock price of the Seattle-based company shot up.  Correspondent Tom Banse reports. 

Horizon and Alaska are cutting flights to match the steep drop in demand for air travel. 

The company expects to reduce capacity on Alaska Airlines by 8 percent and on Horizon Air by 9 percent over the course of this year. 

Managers made no mention of dropping any cities from the schedule completely. 

The company also plans to sell planes to shrink its fleet modestly. 

Alaska Air Group CEO Bill Ayer told analysts on a conference call that airlines will be under pressure “for the foreseeable future.”

Bill Ayer: “Right now the big focus really is just on maintaining what we have and securing what we have.”

Unlike other companies reporting earnings this week, the airline announced no layoffs. 

It does confront labor problems though.  Unionized pilots are making strike preparations because the pace of negotiations on a new contract is very slow.