Alaska Airlines Returns to Growth in California

In the year after it completed its late-2016 acquisition of smaller rival Virgin America, Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK) went on a growth spree in California. This included adding more than a dozen new routes in San Francisco, Virgin America's largest base of operations.

In early 2018, Alaska acknowledged that many of its new California routes were performing poorly, due partly to stiff competition from Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) and United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL), the top two airlines in the state. As a result, Alaska cut many of the routes it had added in 2017, as well as some that it had inherited from Virgin America.

Alaska Airlines' 2017 expansion in California had mixed results. Image source: Alaska Airlines.

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Source Fool.com