I have got to be out of my mind. Here I am, a perpetual hater of the domestic airline industry, about to write a positive piece on a carrier that isn't Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV). Yet maybe, just maybe, Alaska Air Group (NYSE:ALK) is one to keep an eye on.

Results for this first quarter were certainly encouraging. Operating revenue rose more than 14%, load factor was up in both the Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air divisions, and the company kept costs well-controlled. After you strip out some impairments and charges, Alaska Air managed to post a small profit for the quarter. That was far better performance than the Street anticipated, and the first time Alaska Air has posted a first-quarter profit since 1999.

Cost control has been the name of the game here for a while, and I think management really deserves some credit for its accomplishments. Perhaps the company's doings aren't as well-covered by the media because it's based all the way out in Seattle, but it seems to me like it's managed this cost-cutting without all the vitriol, saber-rattling, and hardball tactics that many other carriers have used against their own people. Whatever Alaska Air's doing, it's working -- its cost position isn't quite as good as Southwest's or AirTran's (NYSE:AAI), but it's considerably better than what Continental (NYSE:CAL) or American (NYSE:AMR) have.

Obviously, the real question now is whether the company can keep this up. So far, at least, higher fares haven't hurt its ability to pack passengers into its planes. In addition, the West Coast seems to lack some of the East Coast's furious fare competition, and few airlines seem to want to challenge the company in Alaska (where it gets a quarter of its business). It also doesn't hurt that Alaska Air has been active in hedging some of its fuel exposure.

It's very difficult for me to recommend any domestic airline, particularly one that's already up a fair bit from its lows. Still, if the environment for airlines is slowly getting better, I can't deny some potential for this company to continue to surprise. At a minimum, though, be cautious -- there's a reason why the U.S. airline business is generally thought of as a disaster, and today's rather positive sentiment is far more likely to change than the industry's fundamental underpinnings will.

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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).