✈️ Alaska’s record-breaking plane order

Alaska Airlines Places Record-Breaking Plane Order

On Wednesday, Alaska Airlines placed an order for more than 100 Boeing planes. This is the largest order in the airline’s history and, for the aviation nerds out there, includes 105 narrowbody 737 MAX 10s and five widebody 787-10s. It also includes the option for an additional 35 737s down the line. [Seattle Times]

• Alaska Wants to Make Seattle a ‘Global Gateway’: Alaska plans to offer 12 new long-haul international routes from Seattle by 2030. It has announced five routes so far, including nonstop flights to Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo-Narita last year and London, Rome, Reykjavik, and Iceland this year. [Seattle Times]
• Alaska Expansion Comes Amid Lawsuits: Two years after the door plug blew out of a Boeing plane and forced an Alaska Airlines flight to make an emergency landing, the pilot is now suing Boeing. Captain Brandon Fisher is seeking at least $10 million, alleging the company damaged his reputation by blaming him for the incident. [KING 5]
• Boeing Safety Concerns: In September of last year, Boeing reached a settlement in the wrongful death case with the mother of John Barnett, a former Boeing worker who raised concerns about the planemaker's production that was potentially putting passengers at risk. Two months after Barnett’s death, another Boeing whistleblower, Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at a key Boeing supplier, died at 45 after being diagnosed with a MRSA bacterial infection. High-profile safety issues with Boeing's planes also triggered a congressional hearing in 2024. [NPR]
• Order Signals Shift In Post-Acute-Pandemic Demand: Over the summer, Boeing said aircraft manufacturing was lagging well behind rebounding passenger volumes, with production remaining at lower than half the levels seen before COVID-19. This order seems to signal a shift. [Manufacturing Digital]

District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth Is Council President 👩🏾‍⚖️

The first Seattle City Council meeting of the year included a unanimous vote for Joy Hollingsworth to lead the council for the next two years. She takes over the gavel from former president Sara Nelson. Hollingsworth is also the first Black woman to hold the position. Oh, and The Burner reports that with Hollingsworth, Foster, and Rinck on the city council, three out of the nine sitting council members are openly queer, a first for Seattle. [The Urbanist]

WA Sticks with American Academy of Pediatrics Vaccine Guidance 💉

Washington state will continue to recommend 15 vaccines for children and adolescents, following the schedule recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. This comes after federal officials bypassed the U.S.’s vaccine approval process and removed seven vaccines — including those that protect against the flu, rotavirus, hepatitis, some forms of meningitis, and RSV — from the federal vaccine schedule for all children. [KUOW]

• Why You Should Get Your Seasonal Flu Shot: While we’re talking vaccines, a new flu variant, the subclade K strain, is on the rise. Though this year’s vaccine isn’t a perfect match to this strain, a preliminary analysis from the U.K. found it offered at least partial protection, lowering people’s risk of hospitalization. Plus, this RN warns, ‘urgent care is swamped right now.’ [Seattle Times]

King County Council Honors Jeopardy’s Ken Jennings 🏅

The Metropolitan King County Council held a special ceremony on Tuesday to officially recognize the current host of “Jeopardy!” with his own custom Mariners jersey. Jennings supports local pancreatic cancer research and serves on the board of directors for Scarecrow Video. He credits much of his success on “Jeopardy!” to watching films from Scarecrow. [Seattle Times]

Departing SPOG President Endorses Successor 🚨

As we discussed on the podcast yesterday, Mike Solan, the divisive president of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild, is no longer seeking reelection. His second term ends next month. He has endorsed Kent Loux as his successor, who, according to a FOIAed journal excerpt from SPD’s Capt. Robert Brown expressed beliefs that the 2020 election was stolen and needed to be ‘set right.’ [KUOW]

Coffee Shops to Chase Away the Winter Blues ☕

In light of Liam’s rant today on the podcast, I thought it would be a good time to share Ashley’s fantastic list of local coffee shops to check out. Hopefully these ones don’t have a 45-minute-long wait! [City Cast Seattle]