Gaining altitude.(Alaska Air)(Statistical Data Included)

Alaska Air rebounds from bleak 2000

At a time when most large U.S. air carriers are desperately paring back amenities to stem hemorrhaging profits, Alaska Air Group Inc. seems downright expansive.

Next week Seattle-based Alaska Airlines will start daily flights between Seattle and Washington, D.C.'s Reagan International Airport, breaking out of its traditional focus on the West Coast from Alaska to Mexico.

And the company has been expanding in other ways, with Alaska Airlines starting new nonstops to Mexico's popular Caribbean coast and adding incremental expansion into cities such as Tucson and Calgary, Alberta, slightly east of its normal coastal routes. Alaska Airlines' little brother Horizon Air has become the first carrier to use the new Bombardier 70-passenger CRJ-700 regional jet.

"This is probably the most exciting time since I've been here," said Alaska Air Group chairman and CEO John Kelly, his enthusiasm seeming almost incongruous at a time of …