Horizon Air

Horizon Air is an American regional airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, United States, within the Seattle metropolitan area. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Alaska Air Group, and it is paid by fellow group member Alaska Airlines to staff, operate, and maintain aircraft used on flights that are scheduled, marketed, and sold by Alaska Airlines. Planes operated by Horizon are co-branded as Alaska Horizon to differentiate Horizon's planes from those operated by Alaska's other regional airline partner, SkyWest Airlines.

Horizon Air started operations in September 1981, was purchased by the Alaska Air Group in November 1986, and continued to fly as a separately branded airline until 2011, when it shifted to the current capacity purchase agreement business model.

The airline is headquartered in the Seattle suburb of SeaTac, not far from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, and the airline's primary maintenance base is at Portland International Airport. Horizon also considers Seattle–Tacoma and Portland airports its hubs.

Horizon Air was formed in May 1981 by Milt Kuolt, Joe Clark, and Bruce McCaw, with initial plans to fly to Hawaii but later changed to serve Washington state. The airline started operations on September 1, 1981, with three Fairchild F-27 aircraft. Its headquarters were in an area that is now within SeaTac, Washington.

Horizon Air's first route connected Yakima to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport and was followed a week later by Tri-Cities Airport in Pasco to Seattle. The general offices of Horizon Air were operated out of an old house behind Sea-Tac Airport. Horizon acquired Air Oregon on June 17, 1982, after both airlines were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars monthly, in order to consolidate and reduce their operating deficit. Horizon agreed to purchase Transwestern Airlines of Utah in September 1983, once again to try to reduce operating deficit of the airline.

A single Fokker F28 twin jet, purchased in July 1984 from an African carrier, was the first jet owned by Horizon Air (however, the first jet operated by Horizon was a wet leased Douglas DC-9-10).

An initial public offering occurred in 1985 to secure operating capital, which after only one profitable year since founding, was needed to keep the airline afloat. That summer, Horizon entered into its first codeshare agreement with United Airlines, and on September 8, Horizon signed an agreement with de Havilland Canada to begin purchasing the airline's first brand new aircraft, the de Havilland Canada Dash 8-100 twin turboprop.

Late in 1985, Horizon entered into an agreement to purchase their chief competitor in Washington, Cascade Airways, but by early 1986 were released from the agreement. Merger talks between the two had begun in late 1982.