SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 2002--Bucking the industry trend, Alaska is preparing for 3.7 percent capacity growth this summer over last.

Two additional aircraft and the airlines' new transcontinental long-haul routes account for much of the growth.

The most notable year-over-year changes in the summer schedule are recently inaugurated routes from Seattle to Washington, D.C, Boston and Denver; Los Angeles to Cancun and Calgary; and Orange County to Vancouver.

"Initial demand for these new long-haul routes is meeting or beating our expectations," said Gregg Saretsky, Alaska's executive vice president of marketing and planning.

Alaska is also increasing service to Las Vegas from nine flights per day to 11, with an additional flight each from Seattle and Portland. And Seattle-Sacramento service is increasing by one flight, for a total of seven daily flights.

The airline will maintain nearly hourly service between Anchorage and Seattle with 19 daily roundtrips. Alaska's new 172-seat Next Generation Boeing 737-900s are scheduled for several of those flights.

The summer schedule is also designed to provide more connections between Alaska's new transcontinental flights and its Pacific Northwest, Alaska and Canadian flights. And it is targeted to further enhance on-time performance.

Alaska's summer schedule offers an average of 536 daily departures virtually the same as last year. The nation's ninth largest carrier, Alaska celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. The carrier was recently ranked No. 1 in the annual Airline Quality Ratings compiled by the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Wichita State University. And readers of Travel+Leisure magazine recently named Alaska the "World's Best Domestic Airline." Alaska and its regional partner, Horizon Air, together serve 80 cities in the Lower 48, Alaska, Canada and Mexico. For reservations go to www.alaskaair.com, call Alaska's toll-free reservations line at 1-800-ALASKAAIR (800/252-7522) or call your travel agent. For more news and information, visit the Alaska Airlines Newsroom on the Internet at http://newsroom.alaskaair.com.