We interviewed the CEO of Alaska Air Virtual

My name is Marcus Bobbitt, CEO and President of Alaska Air Virtual, I’m 30 years old; I’ve been flying flight simulators since I was 14. Ever since I was a boy I envisioned two things, building a VA, and building a home 737 cockpit! Now that my VA is created and proving to successful, I am now starting on my second dream! In the real world I had the pleasure of serving as an executive partnering with Alaska Airlines, so I thought it was only fitting I create Alaska Air, and that I live in Alaska. I had to the opportunity to meet the CEO of Alaska Airlines and work alongside many of their executives.

Alaska Air Virtual launched February 15, 2017; since then we’ve grown to over 160 pilots averaging 2- 3 applications per day.

Absolutely; we’ve grown exponentially, generally VA’s struggle to hit critical mass eventually dying off after about 3-4 months. Our search engine optimization is deemed top notch, searching any Alaska airlines, we appear. Our look and feel is superior to similarly sized VA’s. We continue to attract talent allowing our culture to remain fun and welcoming.

I’d say the very beginning where you are trying to build something from nothing; the experience of trying to materialize your dreams. And finally, after the stress, the most rewarding is the ability to go to your domain and see 10-15 pilots flying at once, to visit forums and notice the VA community talking about how awesome your VA is… It is at that point it makes it all worth it!

Certainly, the world is filled with interesting people, people in which perhaps had failures in their VA creation thus they try to sabotage your work. Word to the wise to all future CEO’s, invest in web security, it will make your life much easier. Nothing worse than counter attacking hackers…

Our inflow of pilot application comes from excellent SEO and brilliant operation center aesthetics; visiting our website makes you want to join because of modernly robust look. Yet perhaps the critical elements are 1) creating a VA that is named a real-world airline, pilots generally want to fly for their favorite real world airline. 2) Having real world routes, this adds to immersion 3) Identify your competition and do what they aren’t doing, or manage your VA better. Ask yourself, why should people fly for you – once you answer that be sure your website shows why.

We have anywhere from the DASH-8 on up to the 747-8 and everything in between; essentially all Boeing and Airbus commercial airlines we fly.

We fly on both VATSIM and IVAO – I believe it adds to immersion and realism. My personal favorite is VATSIM, yet many of our pilots fly IVAO, both networks add the realism component. Many pilots are afraid or nervous, yet there are tons of Youtube videos showing you phraseology.

We utilize VABASE, I’ve invested in a customized ACARS of which tracks the flight while automatically files PIREPS. Super happy with the service it provides, prior to my customized investment, I wished it provided live data within the PIREPs, now it does!

Yes we’ve partnered with Aerosoft and FS2CREW which provides discounts on their products, excellent offers. As long as the pilot is active, they are entitled to such discounts.

Yes we built on the VABASE engine, then added loads more through customized coding. Our web page is deemed one of the nicest, if I do say so myself!

We envision we will continue our growth rate, which will place us at around 300 pilots and over 35,000 schedules with over 1200 destinations with desired features such as flight randomizers, frequent flyer mileage programs, and SimBrief integration.