Skift Take
Ben Minicucci will assume the top job at Alaska Airlines in two months — not an optimal time for any CEO, let alone a new one. President Biden's pledge for wider distribution of vaccines has Miniccuci and his exec team hopeful Alaska will see even more leisure travel demand pick up starting this spring.
Incoming Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci will take the helm in March in perhaps one of the strangest years in the century-long history of commercial aviation. After a brutal 2020, the airline is looking at this year as one of transition with a recovery in the offing in 2023, provided enough people in the U.S. get vaccinated, that is.
"I think I'm optimistic with the Biden administration," Minicucci told analysts during the company's fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 earnings call on Tuesday. "[President Joseph Biden] just announced 1.5 million vaccines per day ... it could mean we have 100 million people in the country vaccinated."
"I think we might start seeing people venturing out for spring break, so I think we're going to be cautious ... I think we're going to be on our toes and react appropriately," added Minicucci, who takes the helm officially in March.
For most airlines, spring break — beginning in early March and through April, when many schools and universities give students a week off —marks the first significant travel period of the year, ending the lull of January and February after the year-end holidays in December. Alaska executives noted that December was weaker than expected as bookings dropped off in late November in response to spikes in Co
