Alaska Air Cancels Over 100 Flights as Pilots Picket Airports

(Bloomberg) -- Alaska Air Group Inc. canceled more than 100 flights on Friday as the carrier's pilots picketed at five West Coast airports amid negotiations over a new labor contract.

The airline scrubbed about 14% of its schedule as of 2 p.m. New York time, according to data from Flightaware.com. Further flight cancellations could occur over the weekend due to the staffing disruptions, the Seattle-based company said in an emailed statement. “It takes everyone at Alaska to run a successful and reliable operation. Today, we fell short.”

The roughly 3,000 Alaska pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, said in a statement that it has been nearly three years since they had begun negotiations with the airline on a new contract.

Alaska said it had recently proposed a contract to pilots to provide “a significant financial investment in our pilot group while recognizing that we are still working to recover from $2.3 billion in losses” experienced during the pandemic.

Alaska's shares rose less than 1% at 2:47 p.m. in New York.

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