Corporate travel revenue at Alaska Airlines is holding at about 85% of 2019 levels, affecting the carrier’s shoulder season business, according to Andrew Harrison, chief revenue officer, speaking on a third-quarter earnings call. He said the airline saw “no upside benefit” from corporate travel during the period.

As a result, according to Harrison, Alaska is making some capacity shifts between business and leisure routes. Harrison said the carrier is “focused on managing capacity prudently, including capitalizing on leisure destinations, including 15 new routes” in the first quarter of 2024, citing new service from Seattle and Los Angeles to Nassau, Bahamas. This shift, he said, “will bring in new revenue while also constraining our total capacity growth to low levels, and reducing business-heavy routes and frequencies.” For example, said Harrison, the carrier has trimmed its higher-frequency Pacific Northwest and California business seats 22% versus January and February of last year.

Harrison added that the carrier is “beginning to see a little more strength come in on the corporate side,” particularly as employees return to the office. Between September and October, he said, especially at high-tech clients, the carrier “started to see in some places for some accounts, a decent uptick in travel.”

Some larger technology companies have seen “quite a significant movement in volume,” depending on where they fly, Harrison said. Yields, however, were not where the carrier had seen them historically, “so I think this is still a moving subject.”

Alaska reported flat third-quarter operating revenue and passenger revenue versus a year prior. Total revenue was $2.8 billion, while passenger revenue was $2.6 billion. One factor contributing to the flat performance, according to CEO Ben Minicucci, was “significant fuel-cost headwinds given our geographic exposure to the West Coast.”