He also shared the airline may be looking at changing its rewards program.

“Fifty-five percent of the seats that leave Seattle everyday are on Alaska,” he said.

“And so us flying long-haul out of Seattle is a natural evolution of our online grid.

Alaska Air plane in the air over snow capped mountains

Credit:Courtesy of Alaska Air

You go back in time two decades, we didn’t fly to the east coast.

Catlin also creditedits merger with Hawaiian Airlinesfor its new infrastructure allowing the airline to handle increased bandwidth.

“Our philosophy is to make it a place of respite,” he said of Alaska’s lounges.

Alaska openeda new lounge at San Francisco International Airportin 2024.