Alaska Air mulls fewer partnerships

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, may reduce the number of partnerships it has with other airlines to improve customer service, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

"We want to go back to our codeshare partners and make sure it works," Chief Executive William Ayer told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington. Code sharing allows airlines to sell seats on each other's planes as if the seats were their own.

He said reducing the number of partners was possible, but not the goal of review planned for next year.

Alaska Air has mileage and code sharing partnerships with a number of airlines including AMR Corp.'s (AMR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) American Airlines, Continental Airlines (CAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Delta Air Lines DALRQ.PK, and Northwest Airlines NWACQ.PK.

Ayer said there had been situations where customers have had difficulties with connections.

"At the end of the day the customers gets to decide a lot of things," he said. "If it doesn't work for them, it's not going to work for anyone else."