Sister carriers Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines have appointed Kales Airline Services to provide GSSA support in the UK, Ireland and Italy, marking a new step in the group’s European commercial expansion.
Under the agreement, Kales will deliver online agency services in the UK and Italy, while also handling offline services in Turkey, Ireland and India.
According to Kales, the partnership represents an important milestone in the company’s ongoing international growth strategy. The group said the cooperation is aligned with Alaska Airlines’ rollout of new daily transatlantic links between Seattle and major European cities.
Alaska Airlines is scheduled to launch daily Rome-Seattle flights on 29 April, followed by the start of daily Seattle-London services on 21 May.
In the UK market, Alaska Airlines will be represented by Wexco, the fully owned Kales Group subsidiary.
Sebastiaan Scholte, chief executive of Kales Group, said the partnership would significantly strengthen the group’s reach and enhance the options it can offer customers.
He said the cooperation with Alaska and Hawaiian would allow the group to broaden its network considerably, while also giving customers access to more destinations across North America as well as onward connections to South Korea, Japan and Australia.
Ian Morgan, vice president of cargo at Alaska Airlines, said the appointment of Kales in these new markets would help ensure a smooth and seamless customer experience.
The airline plans to operate Boeing 787 aircraft on the new routes.
Alongside their domestic US network, Alaska and Hawaiian Air Cargo currently serve 14 destinations across Asia, the South Pacific, Canada and Mexico through their international gateways in Honolulu and Seattle.
The latest development follows last month’s announcement that PrimeFlight Cargo had been selected to handle cargo for Alaska Airlines’ new daily Seattle-Heathrow flights.
