It’s official! Alaska Air Group is slated to acquire Virgin America, pending the approval of their respective boards and the Department of Justice. Your AFA Alaska Master Executive Council (MEC) officers are very, very pleased that executive management is intending to combine the two carriers and operate under a single certificate. In other words, we’re looking at a merger!

Alaska Airlines and Virgin America are both known for providing an exceptional in-flight experience, thanks in large part to the dedication of our respective flight attendants,” said Jeffrey Peterson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA Master Executive Council at Alaska Airlines. “The combination of these two award-winning airlines provides an exciting opportunity for our members and for the Virgin America flight attendants, or Inflight Team Members. We look forward to joining together and building on our legacies of customer satisfaction to the benefit of both companies’ passengers.”

The MEC knows everybody has a ton of questions. Please be assured that AFA is here to represent you through the many steps in this process. We are holding a special MEC meeting later today in Seattle in order to review recent events and discuss the go forward plan.

For now, we invite you to start getting to know the new members of our Alaska family. If you see Virgin America (VX) Inflight Team Members (ITMs) or employees in the airport, greet them just like you would any Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant or employee. Strike up a friendly conversation if you have time.

If you are interacting with VX ITMs on social media, take the opportunity to start understanding their rich and unique culture and share ours with them. Although our groups might appear to be very different initially, the MEC believes that you will discover both feel a passionate ownership of and pride in our respective cultures. We also share many of the same core values and an emphasis on customer service.

These are very exciting times we are in. Keep your focus on doing what we do well: operating a safe and on-time airline and providing award-winning customer service. The MEC will be communicating more following our meeting later today.

Congratulations to Alaska Airlines and a warm welcome to Virgin America!

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; and MEC officers-elect Tim Green and Brice McGee