Alaska Air Group is the airline holding company under which Alaska Airlines (AS), Hawaiian Airlines (HA), Horizon Air (QX), and McGee Air Services operate. Founded in 1985 and based out of SeaTac, it is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange and S&P MidCap 400 Index with a net income of US$395 million for the 2023-24 financial year.
Initially, the group ran only Alaska Airlines, but in the past decade or so, there has been a massive expansion through the acquisition of other carriers. A merger between Alaska and Virgin America was completed in 201,8, whereas in September 2024, the Alaska Air Group’s approval of a proposed takeover of Hawaiian Airlines was granted by the US Department of Transportation.
In addition to two full-service airlines, the group also runs Horizon Air, which is the regional branch of Alaska Airlines that was founded in 1981. In 2016, the Alaska Air Group also founded its own ground handling and support company called McGee Air Services. At the head of their rapid development and operations is CEO Ben Minicucci, and here is a look at his profile and salary.
Who is Alaska Air Group CEO Ben Minicucci?
Ben Minicucci is a Canadian business executive with Italian roots. He has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in mechanical engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada, as well as an advanced management program from the Harvard Business School.
A significant chunk of his experience was spent with the Canadian Armed Forces, with whom he spent 14 years. Thereafter, he was part of Air Canada (AC) in various operations roles before taking up a vice presidential role under their heavy maintenance branch.
In 2004, he ventured into American aviation for the first time with Alaska Airlines, where he was the staff vice president of maintenance. Later on, he also became the VP of Alaska’s operations in Seattle and then their chief operating officer, a position he served until 2016.
Following his appointment as president of Alaska in 2016, he was key to their merger with Virgin America and expansion of the network into California. During the merger, which received approval in 2018 and its completed in 2019, he even served as the CEO of Virgin America.
In 2021, he became the CEO of the Alaska Air Group, succeeding Brad Tilden in the role.
Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci’s salary in 2025
Ben Minicucci received a total salary of US$8.6 million in the 2024-25 financial year. The salary is a drop from the US$10.3 million which Minicucci received in the preceding financial year, of which US$5 million was labelled as additional special raises for the 59-year-old.
Out of the total amount, US$705,000 was part of the basic salary component for the 12 months, whereas an additional US$2.5 million was paid out to him as part of the Alaska Air Group’s incentive plan approved by the board.
Approximately US$5.1 million was part of his compensation in stock awards, whereas the rest of the proceeds, amounting to close to US$300,000, were in miscellaneous payments.
Here is how Ben Minicucci’s salary compares to his counterparts at United Airlines and American Airlines:
- United’s CEO, Scott Kirby, took him a whopping pay packet of US$33.9 million this year, double what he earned last year. This was in part due to the carrier’s massive growth and expansion of services to newer destinations with added frequency to existing routes. They also adopted cost-effectiveness mechanisms and inducted new aircraft into their fleet.
- On the other hand, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom was compensated US$15.6 million in the 2024-25 fiscal year. AA had a free cash flow of over US$2 billion in 2024 and continued its expansion from its Miami and New York-JFK bases, thus seeing its operating revenue and director compensation reach a high figure.
Alaska Air Group plans for 2025
Alaska Air Group is planning to use Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines fleets interchangeably, which also hoping to streamline certain operations to be more cost-effective in 2025.
The immediate plan is for airport lounges to be enhanced, premium seat capacity to increase, and to launch a premium credit card offering. There is also a plan to increase earnings by 30% per share on the stock exchange.
Using Hawaiian Airlines’ fleet of wide-body airplanes, Alaska Airlines is set to launch its first long-haul services across the Pacific.
From May and November 2025, respectively, the chief carrier under the group will begin flights to Tokyo, Japan, and Seoul, South Korea, while plans for Alaska to integrate Hawaiian’s A330s and 787s are also starting to materialise.
This will help the airline (Alaska) to ponder over expansions into other overseas destinations like Bangkok, Delhi, London, Manila, and Paris over the near future, while the objective of Hawaiian Airlines will be to better connectivity within Hawaii and the US mainland, ideally Seattle.
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