Horizon Air flight attendants authorize a strike, seek higher pay raise

Horizon Air flight attendants overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike Tuesday, marking a significant escalation in contract negotiations with Alaska Air Group.

The vote doesn't mean flight attendants are set to walk off the job, but it signals the union is ramping up pressure as negotiations continue after more than two years.

Horizon, a regional airline that flies to 45 cities around the Pacific Northwest and surrounding areas, is a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group, the same company that owns Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines, as well as ground support company McGee Air Services.

Horizon operates and manages its own aircraft, but those planes have Alaska's branding and Alaska is responsible for scheduling, marketing and pricing Horizon's flights.

Horizon's flight attendants - represented by the AFA-CWA, or the Association of Flight Attendants union that is part of the Communications Workers of America Union - said Alaska Air Group hasn't offered a wage proposal that keeps up with the rising cost of living in Horizon's hubs, including Seattle.

The union declined to share what it is asking for in wages, or what the company has offered, but said it would like to see a double-digit pay raise while Air Group has offered a single-digit increase.

Union leaders said Tuesday they want an increase that matches the raise Alaska Airlines' flight attendants won in their own contract negotiations last year.

In that contract, all Alaska flight attendants received immediate pay raises between 18% and 28%, depending on how many years they had worked, as well as a 3% raise in March 2026 and another 3% in March 2027. The contract also added "boarding pay" for the first time, allowing flight attendants to be paid for the work they do before aircraft doors close. Alaska is among the first airlines in the industry to mandate boarding pay in a contract.

On Tuesday, as Horizon flight attendants picketed outside the airline's headquarters in SeaTac, union leaders said Horizon's pay is below their industry peers.

"At this point, what they have given us, it's not enough. It's nothing compared to the cost of living," said Jamie Moore, local president for AFA Horizon. "We're not just the pawns of the industry."

After 21 days of virtual voting, the union said Tuesday that 94% of the 650 Horizon Air flight attendants participated in the strike authorization vote. Of those, 99.8% approved the strike.

The vote doesn't mean flight attendants will immediately walk off the job. Following federal regulation, the National Mediation Board must first determine negotiations are deadlocked, starting a 30-day cooling off period before a strike could begin.

But the vote is meant to show that Horizon's flight attendants "will do whatever it takes to get the contract we have earned," AFA Horizon president Lisa Davis-Warren said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Alaska Air Group said Tuesday that this vote is a common step" in the negotiation process and does not mean a flight attendant strike will happen anytime soon, if at all. The federally mandated mediation process can take months, or years, the spokesperson continued.

"Our guests and operation will not be impacted by the outcome in the near term or potentially at all," the spokesperson said. "We have a history of reaching agreements with our unions and we have no reason to believe that our negotiations with AFA will be any different.

This isn't the first time Horizon flight attendants have tried to put pressure on the company. In April, the group picketed outside Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as Alaska prepared to launch its first flight from Seattle to Rome.

On Tuesday, flight attendants held yellow signs with slogans that read, "Alaska Air Group makes millions, we can't pay rent." Standing on the side of the road, they chanted, "Hey hey, beep beep, Horizon Air is mighty cheap."

Norann Mann, local vice president with AFA Horizon, said these contract negotiations are particularly contentious because Alaska Air Group has spent much of the last two years touting its expansion plans. After it acquired Hawaiian Airlines at the end of 2024, Alaska has set out to add more international routes from Seattle to Asia and Europe, with plans to add at least 12 new routes from Seattle by 2030.

But Alaska needs its regional carrier to bring passengers to its Seattle and Portland hubs, Mann said.

"We're their feeder," Mann said. "They couldn't do it without us."

The two parties are back at the bargaining table Monday.

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