Bases, pay, training, hiring windows and the interview process — from dated sources.
Last updated August 2026 — dated facts carry their own as-of dates below.
Horizon Air is Alaska Air Group's wholly-owned regional carrier — an all-Embraer E175 operation (47–48 aircraft heading toward ~50 by end of 2026) flying as "Alaska Horizon" from a Pacific Northwest-centered base map. Structurally, and this matters more than usual because the 2024–2025 merger news confuses most applicants: Horizon flies on its own FAA certificate. When Alaska and Hawaiian combined onto a single operating certificate in October 2025, Horizon was excluded — a Horizon FA is a Horizon employee on a separate seniority list, not an Alaska or Hawaiian FA, and applying to Horizon is not a backdoor into either mainline cabin.
Horizon's honest recruiting edge is training: 4 weeks of paid training in Portland, OR — explicitly contrasted on the group's own careers page with Alaska's 6-week and Hawaiian's 8-week programs, which are unpaid ($40/day per diem only). At Horizon you earn wages in training; at its own mainline you don't. The trade-off is on the other side of the ledger: the group's careers page shows a first-year rate of $20.66 per block hour and its own first-year estimate of about $25,000 — the lowest first-year figure among the carriers we've researched.
That number comes with volatility attached. The rate flows from an AFA contract that became amendable at the end of 2024 and is in active NMB mediation, with an AFA strike-authorization vote opened/authorized as of June 16, 2026. Understand what that means under the Railway Labor Act: a strike vote is negotiating leverage, not a strike — release from mediation, a 30-day cooling-off period, and further NMB steps would all have to precede any actual action. Both "Horizon FAs are about to strike" and "nothing is happening with the contract" are wrong framings. Practically: today's pay figures are accurate and likely to move; date every use.
Baseline requirements (joint careers page, checked August 2026): minimum age 21, high-school diploma or equivalent, ability to fly unrestricted in and out of all countries served (postings specify unrestricted Canada access and a current passport or ability to obtain one), and U.S. work authorization. Posting mirrors add 2 years of customer/community service experience — attribution across the three carriers on the shared page is the weak point, so verify per-requisition. On reach: the group's published standard — "Reach 82 vertical inches while standing on toes but without wearing shoes" — is attributed on the page to Alaska and Hawaiian; a Horizon-specific spec was not separately confirmed, so confirm Horizon's exact requirement on the posting rather than assuming 82 inches. No swim test appears in Horizon requirements reviewed.
Seven FA bases (careers page, checked August 2026): Seattle (SEA), Portland (PDX), Boise (BOI), Spokane (GEG), Anchorage (ANC), Everett (PAE), and Las Vegas (LAS) — matching the post-May-2026 pilot domicile map exactly. Medford (MFR) closed May 31, 2026, with LAS opened concurrently; any base list including MFR is stale.
Base is assigned during training, and the group policy is verbatim: "Flight Attendants must be open to relocating to ANY of our bases." No published reserve-length data exists — do not trust hold-time claims.
No flow-through: there is no published FA flow program from Horizon to Alaska — the "Pathways" flow you may have read about is a pilot program. Horizon FAs wanting mainline apply externally like anyone else, though group familiarity plausibly helps. The merger's practical upside for a Horizon FA is wider nonrev travel (the Hawaiian network joined the family) and group-scale benefits — it did not change Horizon FA hiring mechanics.
Horizon FAs are paid per block hour — boarding, ground time before door close, and standby are not paid at the hourly rate. One trap specific to this family: Alaska mainline pays per TFP ("trip for pay"), a different unit entirely — never mix Horizon block-hour and Alaska TFP numbers in one comparison without saying they're different systems. Numbers below from the group's careers page (checked August 2026) unless noted:
Horizon Air requires flight attendants to be at least 21, hold a high school diploma or equivalent, and be eligible for unrestricted travel into Canada and all countries Horizon serves.
Requirements change between hiring windows — confirm them on the Horizon Air careers page before you apply.
Data compiled from airline careers pages, union publications, industry press, and candidate-reported interview intel — wave-dependent facts carry as-of dates. Candidate reports are unofficial; confirm requirements on the airline's own careers site.