Delta Airlines has pulled its bookings for summer flights to both Ketchikan and Sitka, a seasonal service it had offered for nearly a decade. That leaves Alaska Airlines as the only major carrier in the two communities.
Scott Habberstad oversees community relations for the Alaska market of Alaska Airlines. During a Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce luncheon days after Delta’s Jan. 11 pull-out, Habberstad gave a presentation and took questions from the audience.
Habberstad said he was disappointed to see his competitor go.
“I love the fact that Delta was here, because competition makes you better, right? Really does,” he said.
But Habberstad was adamant that losing Delta would not affect the cost of flights in and out of Ketchikan.
“The fares will be the same as they were last year, as they were this year, and they’ll be the same next year,” Habberstad said. “We’re not here to gouge, we’re here to stay.”
Since 2015, Delta had been offering once-daily flights connecting both Ketchikan and Sitka to Seattle during the busy summer months. As the carrier has expanded its hub in Seattle, it has increasingly challenged Alaska Airlines’ dominance in its namesake state. That competition has meant lower prices for customers.
Scott McMurren, the long-time publisher of the Alaska Travelgram newsletter and travel columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, tracks the price of Alaska flights for a living. He said each time Delta has entered a city previously dominated by Alaska Airlines, prices have dropped.
And since Delta pulled its seasonal flights in Ketchikan, McMurren said Alaska Airlines’ prices already look to be substantially higher for the upcoming summer than they were last year.
“It’s important to just understand that when there is a monopoly in the market, prices drift up,” he said. “And this is not exclusive with Alaska Airlines, Delta does the same thing. All airlines do the same thing.”
But Habberstad insists Alaska Airlines does not intend to raise prices. In a phone call with KRBD, Habberstad said that the apparent increase could be due to sale pricing.
“It’s possible that there was a sale fare in the market, a special sale fare, for some reason when you were looking at it, and there may not be a sale fare today,” he said.
As for Delta, the Sitka and Ketchikan flights apparently just weren’t getting enough passengers to pencil out. In a statement sent to KRBD, a Delta representative said to better meet demand, those aircraft are being reallocated to Bozeman, Montana, “a market with strong year-round demand from Seattle.”
But the airline is continuing to expand in the state’s biggest cities. Delta has recently added a new route from Fairbanks to Salt Lake City and from Anchorage to Los Angeles.
