Alaska Air cancels over 100 flights as pilots picket airports

Alaska Air Group Inc. canceled more than 100 flights on Friday as the carrier’s pilots picketed at five West Coast airports amid negotiations over a new labor contract.

The airline scrubbed about 14% of its schedule as of 2 p.m. New York time, according to data from Flightaware.com. Further flight cancellations could occur over the weekend due to the staffing disruptions, the Seattle-based company said in an emailed statement. “It takes everyone at Alaska to run a successful and reliable operation. Today, we fell short.”

The roughly 3,000 Alaska pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, said in a statement that it has been nearly three years since they had begun negotiations with the airline on a new contract.

Alaska said it had recently proposed a contract to pilots to provide “a significant financial investment in our pilot group while recognizing that we are still working to recover from $2.3 billion in losses” experienced during the pandemic.

Alaska’s shares rose less than 1% at 2:47 p.m. in New York.