Alaska Airlines' aircraft maintainence

[OUman]

Well, Alaska Airlines is going to shut down the Oakland maintainence base and shift that work to two companies: Goodrich Aircraft Maintainence and AAR Aircraft Services at Will Rogers Airport.

AAR has already been doing some maintainence for Alaska's MD 80 fleet, and looks like it'll get a lot more.

Well, too bad that 900 employees are getting dumped while we gain, but I guess that's how the industry's gonna work for sometime to come. (Not that AAR getting more work is a bad thing, but you know.)

OUman

[mranderson]

AAR has had the contrct for over a year, and, from what I understand, has had plans to build more hangers just for Alaska Airlines.

I have felt since this contract was awarded, that Alaska may start service here, and may use us for a central hub. Closing the Oakland maintanace facility and moving it here reinforces my thoughts.

I guess time will tell.

[BG918]

I think it would be great if Alaska at least started flights to Seattle from OKC...

[HOT ROD]

I think it would be great if Alaska at least started flights to Seattle from OKC...

Ditto that!

[Patrick]

I agree. Even without locating a hub here, I'd like to see Alaska Airlnies expand flights to here. That would be one more airline we don't have, offering a service we don't have. The more airlines we can get in and out of our airport, the better. Personally, I'm beginning to see Nuclear's points. Maybe instead of focusing on becoming a hub (which probably will never happen anyways.....not trying to be pessimistic, just looking at reality), we need to focus on just getting better air service with more destinations and more airlines. As Nuclear mentions, that way if an airline files bankruptcy, we wouldn't be left out in the cold. Take Kansas City for instance. They have great air service with many non-stop flights, but they don't have a hub.

Sure, we should always be inviting of a hub if an airline is interested, and we should definitely try to sell our city regarding this matter, but maybe we should start putting emphasis into a goal that's actually attainable with the facility and population we have.