Alaska Airlines Imposes Paper-Ticket Fee

Alaska Airlines said it has added a $10 surcharge for passengers who want a paper ticket. The fee, effective today, covers only those paper tickets bought directly from Alaska Airlines or its regional affiliate, Horizon Air, Alaska said. The fee will be assessed on a per-transaction, not a per-ticket, basis. Excluded are tickets purchased from a travel agent or when an electronic ticket is unavailable, said Jack Evans, a spokesman for the carrier. The surcharge is being imposed primarily to offset delivery costs, he said. Evans said that only a small percentage of people still ask for paper tickets and that Alaska doesn’t expect to lose any customers to other airlines that offer paper tickets without a surcharge. The move follows Delta Air Lines’ action earlier this week that it has added a $2 surcharge to domestic round-trip bookings not made at its Internet site.