THE CLIENT
Alaska Airlines, the fifth-largest airline in North America, operates one of the most complex labor and operational ecosystems in the aviation industry.
With a workforce exceeding 30,000 employees across hundreds of airport stations and contact centers, the airline must balance efficiency and compliance with multiple collective bargaining agreements.
At Alaska Airlines, these collective bargaining agreements govern how union-represented employees (think ramp agents, customer service representatives, and reservation agents) bid for roles and shifts based on seniority.
Within this complex environment, the Ground Operations Resource Planning team plays the vital role of managing staff planning, associated forecasting and budgeting, and centralized bidding for union-represented ground operations employees. This centralized bidding process is critical for ensuring compliance with collective bargaining agreements and maintaining operational efficiency across airport stations and contact centers.
THE CHALLENGE
The central bidding process at Alaska Airlines isn’t optional; it’s a contractual obligation that directly impacts staffing, scheduling, and legal compliance. And the stakes are high. When Alaska Airlines has a vacant role, it is legally required to open that role up to existing employees through the central bidding process before making it available to external candidates. If the central bidding system fails, Alaska Airlines can’t legally fill vacant roles with internal or external candidates, creating a potential bottleneck for operations that could stall business-critical work across the entire organization.
Add to this an upcoming integration with Hawaiian Airlines, a merger that would multiply volume and complexity for the central bidding process, and it became clear that the need for a robust, automated, and compliant solution was mission critical.
Navigating Legacy Patchworks & Compliance Risks
Prior to engaging Cyclotron on a solution, the Alaska Airlines central bidding process relied on a patchwork of fragmented systems: an unsupported FileMaker database, partial employee data from Entra ID, SharePoint portals, a series of Power Automate workflows, and extensive manual validation. Each bid required cross-referencing seniority data from HRIS, validating eligibility and employee details, and tracking award history, all while adhering to union rules that vary across three distinct contracts.
This patchwork approach resulted in:
High Risk of Human Error
Due to a substantial portion of the central bidding process relying on manual data entry and validation, this work was rife with opportunity for errors.
Significant Time Investment
Bid processing required hours of administrative effort per cycle. The Ground Operations Resource Planning team was made up of 8 full-time employees, each with their own primary role. central bidding was a shared responsibility among the team, managed on a rotating basis – meaning every extra minute spent on central bidding was time taken away from their primary responsibilities.
Compliance Concerns
Union rules necessitated strict tracking of seniority, bid history, and eligibility, but the system lacked integration with HRIS and Entra ID and didn’t have a sufficient place to house historical data, making validation manual, cumbersome, and error prone.
Business Continuity Risks
The unsupported FileMaker server posed a threat to ongoing operations, with potential legal implications that could halt hiring internal and external candidates if the central bidding processes was disrupted.
The Challenge in the Client’s Words
OUR APPROACH
After meeting with multiple Microsoft partners to explore possible solutions, Alaska Airlines partnered with Cyclotron to design and implement a fully integrated central bidding application that replaced the fragmented legacy system. A major deciding factor for Alaska Airlines choosing Cyclotron was our commitment to prioritizing a deep understanding of their challenges and desired end state, paired with our ability to build a fully customized system to accommodate the unique requirements of three separate union contracts, creating distinct processes that all converged into a single, unified backend. This approach preserved contractual obligations while delivering a seamless experience for employees and administrators alike.
As soon as we started talking to Cyclotron, it felt like whatever we needed to do, they could do. We were all really impressed by how quickly they picked up our business processes and how clearly they were listening and taking good notes. They weren’t trying to take our problem and squeeze it into something that was pre-packaged. Cyclotron really worked hard to understand what we were trying to achieve, what we needed to preserve — because it’s contractual — and then find what’s the least frictive way to get to that end state.”
THE SOLUTION
At the core of the solution Cyclotron proposed was Microsoft Power Pages, which provided a streamlined, user-friendly portal for employees to view eligible positions and submit bids in seconds. Behind the scenes, Dataverse served as the centralized data repository, storing seniority information, bid histories, and eligibility rules—critical for compliance with union agreements.
To simplify administration for the Ground Operations Resource Planning team, Cyclotron developed a Model Driven App that enabled central bidding Administrators to track ineligibility periods, maintain accurate records without manual intervention, and ultimately award bids efficiently. Real-time data integration with Entra ID and PeopleSoft eliminated the need for the spreadsheet uploads and manual validations of the past, ensuring that seniority and eligibility data were always current.
The solution also addressed security and compliance concerns by implementing role-based access controls, replacing the unrestricted SharePoint lists that previously had the potential to overexpose sensitive information.
As a strategic partner to Alaska Airlines, Cyclotron knew collaboration was central to success, engaging the full central bidding team throughout development and leveraging Azure DevOps boards to manage user stories, requirements, and testing. This collaborative and iterative process allowed enhancements based on real-world feedback, ensuring the final product aligned perfectly with operational needs.
THE IMPACT
The central bidding application has fundamentally changed how Alaska Airlines manages its union bidding process. What once required hours of manual effort and constant cross-checking now happens in minutes. Entire workstreams that previously consumed valuable time have been eliminated, freeing Tyler Reilly’s team to focus on strategic resource planning instead of cumbersome manual central bidding tasks.
Beyond speed, the solution strengthened compliance with union agreements and improved security posture by introducing role-based access controls. Employees now enjoy a streamlined experience—submitting bids in seconds rather than navigating multiple systems—and early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The system also positions Alaska Airlines for future scalability, including the upcoming integration with Hawaiian Airlines, without adding operational strain. Some key outcomes include:
Time Savings
Bid processing reduced from hours to minutes, cutting administrative workload by ~50%
Compliance Assurance
Automated eligibility checks & seniority tracking across 3 contracts, plus award history stored in DataVerse, provide improved compliance posutre and audit-ready historical data
Security Improvements
Unrestricted SharePoint lists are now replaced with more secure role-based access controls
By consolidating processes into one integrated platform, Alaska Airlines has achieved operational resilience and set the stage for long-term efficiency.
The Impact in the Client’s Words
We can see pretty clearly that both of the two primary aims are achieved, and then there’s a bonus third outcome of increasing productivity. We will definitely see a significant difference there, likely to cut time we spend on this work by half. There are entire workstreams that we were doing that just disappear because everything is streamlined in one system.”
With the central bidding application in place, Alaska Airlines is well-positioned for future growth and operational resilience. The platform’s flexibility and scalability ensure readiness the upcoming integration with Hawaiian Airlines, with room to grow even further.