Seattle-based Alaska Airlines believes it will be operating 80% of pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels of capacity by this summer and will achieve 100% of 2019 flying levels by the 2022 summer “at the latest,” according to new CEO Ben Minicucci.
During an April 22 conference call with analysts, Alaska Air Group executives expressed optimism that the 2021 first quarter marked a key turning point from the crisis atmosphere the company which also counts regional Horizon Air in its holdings had been operating under since mid-March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the US hard.
“This [first] quarter felt very much like a turning point from just trying to survive to once again being able to build our business,” CFO Shane Tackett said.
Operator
Good morning. My name is Sia, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Alaska Air Group 2020 fourth-quarter earnings release conference call. Today s call is being recorded and will be accessible for future playback at alaskaair.com.
[Operator instructions] Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Alaska Air Group s managing director, investor relations, Emily Halverson. Please go ahead.
Emily Halverson
Managing Director, Investor Relations
Thank you, Sia, and good morning. Thank you for joining us for our fourth-quarter 2020 earnings call. This morning, we issued our earnings release, which is available at investor.alaskaair.com. On today s call, you ll hear updates from Brad, Ben and Shane.