Alaska Air Cargo
Volume 2  |  September 2016

New Service Routes to NYC and Rural Alaska

Alaska Air Cargo

New freighter update.

Alaska Air Cargo will soon be the only passenger airline in North America with dedicated cargo planes and the first carrier in the world to modify existing 737-700s from passenger aircraft to freighters.

The freighter conversion is the culmination of three years of planning and herculean coordination between divisions across the company. Our first freighter comes into service this December, and two more are planned for the first quarter of 2017.

Because this is the first 737-700 converted freighter, it will be considered a prototype until it is tested and certified by the FAA. We have a full-time staff working at the vendor location to provide continuous oversight of the work.

Highlights of our newly converted 737-700Fs

  • Increased payload capability and a new cargo loading system allow for a greater range of cargo we can carry, including oversized items
  • Maximum payload of 40,000 lbs
  • Highly fuel efficient, with a useful nonstop range of 3,200 miles

Special summer rate sale!

We’re offering amazing rates on cargo, including our lowest-ever published rates in Alaska. Check our pricing tables below for rates in Alaska and the Lower 48. Book soon! Promotion ends September 30.

Alaska Zone Rate Table
Flights from Destination zone 4
Anchorage to Bethel $0.50 / lb
Anchorage to Nome $0.50 / lb
Anchorage to Kotzebue $0.50 / lb
Anchorage to Kodiak $0.50 / lb
Anchorage to Fairbanks $0.22 / lb
Fairbanks to Anchorage $0.22 / lb
Lower 48 Zone Rate Table
origin zone origin zone Destination Zone
origin zone origin zone AS4 AS5 AS6 AS7 AS8 AS9
Origin Zone AS4 $0.20 $0.22 $0.25 $0.50 $0.50 $0.25
Origin Zone AS5 $0.22 $0.25 $0.25 $0.55 $0.55 $0.35
Origin Zone AS6 $0.25 $0.25 $0.22 $0.50 $0.50 $0.35
Origin Zone AS7 $0.50 $0.55 $0.50 $0.65 $0.65 $0.65
Origin Zone AS8 $0.50 $0.55 $0.50 $0.65 $0.65 $0.65
Origin Zone AS9 $0.25 $0.35 $0.35 $0.65 $0.65 N/A
Lower 48 Zone Rate Table
origin zone origin zone Destination Zone
origin zone origin zone AS4 AS5 AS6
Origin Zone AS4 $0.20 $0.22 $0.25
Origin Zone AS5 $0.22 $0.25 $0.25
Origin Zone AS6 $0.25 $0.25 $0.22
Origin Zone AS7 $0.50 $0.55 $0.50
Origin Zone AS8 $0.50 $0.55 $0.50
Origin Zone AS9 $0.25 $0.35 $0.35
origin zone origin zone Destination Zone
origin zone origin zone AS7 AS8 AS9
Origin Zone AS4 $0.50 $0.50 $0.25
Origin Zone AS5 $0.55 $0.55 $0.35
Origin Zone AS6 $0.50 $0.50 $0.35
Origin Zone AS7 $0.65 $0.65 $0.65
Origin Zone AS8 $0.65 $0.65 $0.65
Origin Zone AS9 $0.65 $0.65 N/A
Alaska Air Cargo

New service routes to NYC and rural Alaska.

Three new daily routes to and from NYC, plus additional frequency from Seattle.

Portland (PDX) - Newark (EWR)
coming November 2016

San Diego (SAN) - Newark (EWR)
coming November 2016

San Jose (SJC) - Newark (EWR)
starting in 2017

Seattle (SEA) - Newark (EWR)
additional frequency starting in 2017

We’re also pleased to partner with Ryan Air to help service remote communities throughout western Alaska. You can now ship to over 50 remote Alaskan communities directly through Alaska Air Cargo. We’ll transfer your goods to Ryan Air for you, and your airway bill will interline to Ryan Air seamlessly. To learn more, contact your sales manager or email us.

Customer Spotlight
Laura Sanders, Vice President Operations, Lynden International

Ian Jefferds
Owner and General Manager, Penn Cove Shellfish, Coupeville, WA

Penn Cove Shellfish is a premier provider of some of the finest sustainably farmed shellfish products on the market today. We talked to Ian about how Alaska Air Cargo and Penn Cove Shellfish are growing together.

What is your role at Penn Cove Shellfish? I’m an owner and general manager of the company. My parents started the company in 1975, and my brother and I bought it from my dad about a decade later. We’ve been sustainably farming shellfish in the Northwest for about 40 years now.

How do you sustainably grow your shellfish? We set out collector lines to catch a natural set of mussels in Penn Cove, and we start production of our Mediterranean Mussels, Manila Clams and oysters at our partner’s hatchery in Quilcene, Washington. We follow it through from planting to thinning, growing, harvesting and distribution. Farming shellfish is naturally low on resource consumption compared to other seafood. Along with purchasing algae paste, we also grow our own algae diets at the shellfish hatchery in Quilcene to feed the larval shellfish spawned and hatched there. This has led Penn Cove Shellfish to become the largest mussel farm in America. Penn Cove, Quilcene Bay and Samish Bay are prime locations for our shellfish to grow up healthy and tasty. And Alaska Air Cargo is a key partner in helping deliver the pristine flavor of our shellfish.

Tell us about your relationship with Alaska Air Cargo. Alaska has made a name for itself in getting fish from Alaska to the Lower 48 quickly. One of the biggest issues in the shellfish market over the years has been getting it to consumers quickly to preserve the taste and freshness. We’re a company reliant upon getting our product out fresh to our customers and building a market based on high-quality shellfish. That is how we got hooked up with Alaska Air Cargo.

Alaska Air Cargo helps build your market? How? Because of their many direct flights out of Seattle, Alaska Air Cargo gets our product to our nationwide customers in a high-quality condition quickly. As they continue to add more flight routes, we are able to reach more customers. We grow as they grow.

Couldn’t any airline do that? I suppose they could, but they don’t. We have personal relationships with the people at Alaska Air Cargo, and they really understand seafood; they know how time-sensitive shellfish can be. People in their booking office, like Ravell Snyder in Seattle and Shannon in Anchorage. We want our nationwide customers to be able to taste the fresh-from-the-sea, kissed-by-a-mermaid flavor of our shellfish that our local Pacific Northwest customers enjoy. And the entire Alaska Air Cargo organization goes out of their way to ensure our shipments are at their destinations on time. Having those two things go hand in hand makes a perfect fit for us to be doing business with them.

Do you have any examples? Every holiday season gets crazy in the seafood business. You have people traveling all over the country, planes packed full of passengers and packages, luggage, mail and Christmas cards, so trying to find available space and flights in a timely fashion can be tough. Alaska Air Cargo’s booking offices go way above and beyond in working to schedule flights that are going to have a likelihood of available space. If it looks iffy, they go above and beyond to make sure that space, if not available on one flight, is available on the next flight. We all know the holidays are a rough time of the year to ship, but they make it happen.

And finally, Ian, is there anything else you want to say about Alaska Air Cargo? They really know seafood – not just salmon. I know they are famous for the delivery of the first Copper River salmon out of Alaska, but they know shellfish as well. Hopefully, we will get to a point where the fresh shellfish from the different seasons will become just as noted as the first of the season Copper River.

Alaska Air Cargo

Introducing hassle-free “virtual hold” phone service.

Nobody enjoys being put on hold. So we’re making some customer-friendly updates to our call center technology. Customers no longer need to wait on the phone to speak to an agent if there’s a wait – our virtual hold system will call you back. If you call and the wait time is longer than three minutes, we’ll give an estimated wait and we’ll call you back, all while keeping your same spot in the queue as if you had waited on the line. You can still wait on hold if you’d like, but we’re confident you’ll enjoy this new, more efficient experience.

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