Alaska News

Alaska Air's CEO retiring, Alaska Airlines president named replacement

Alaska Air Group CEO Bill Ayer is retiring, and will be succeeded by Brad Tilden, president of Alaska Airlines, the company said Thursday. Ayer, who is also chairman of the board for Alaska Air Group, will retain that title even as he steps down on May 15.

Ayer has been CEO of Alaska Air Group -- which owns Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air -- for a decade, and in that time has drawn plaudits from shareholders and the media for keeping Alaska Airlines profitable in the midst of a recession and an ever-changing landscape of airlines going bankrupt, merging or downsizing. As recently as last week, CBS News commentator Steve Tobak noted that Ayer had been instrumental in keeping the airline viable over the last 10 years.

"When Ayer took over as chief executive in 2002, the 70-year-old airline was close to bankruptcy, among the worst in terms of on-time departures, and had recently suffered a high-profile crash," Tobak writes. That crash, flight 261 from Puerto Vallarta in Mexico to Seattle, killed 88 people when the plane went into the Pacific Ocean in 2000.

Now, Alaska Airlines is among the best for on-time flights, according to FlightStats, with an on-time departure rate of 97 percent. The company's third-quarter profits for 2011 were reported at $131.1 million.

Ayer, 57, who has worked for Alaska Air for 30 years, is also a private pilot. Tilden, who will succeed him, has been with Alaska Airlines since 1991.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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