No More Prayer Cards On Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines is ending its 30-year practice of placing prayer cards on passengers’ meal trays.

“This difficult decision was not made lightly,” Alaska Air Group CEO Bill Ayer and Alaska Airlines President Brad Tilden wrote in an email Wednesday to regular customers. “Some of you enjoy the cards and associate them with our service,” they wrote. “At the same time, we’ve heard from many of you who believe religion is inappropriate on an airplane.” Alaska started giving passengers prayer cards in the late 1970s. Many people assumed the idea came from former CEO Bruce Kennedy, who did missionary work after leaving Alaska Airlines, but it was actually a marketing executive who brought the idea over from Continental Airlines.

The airline insists that their recent partnership agreement with Emirates Airlines has nothing to do with ending prayer cards.