Alaska Air launches new global gateway in Seattle, unveils new routes

Alaska Air (ALK) announced the launch of Seattle as a new global gateway. New nonstop service with Hawaiian Airlines widebody aircraft between Seattle and Tokyo Narita, Japan and Seoul Incheon, South Korea will begin in 2025, and an enhanced domestic network for the two airlines will launch this spring. Daily nonstop flights between Seattle and Tokyo Narita start on May 12, 2025, offering guests an option when traveling between the Pacific Northwest and Japan on Hawaiian’s Airbus A330-200 aircraft. These flights, along with connections to other Asian destinations on oneworld Alliance partner Japan Airlines, can be purchased now. Nonstop service between Seattle and Seoul Incheon is scheduled to begin in October 2025, with fares available for purchase early next year, along with additional flight details. Air Group’s Seattle hub is the largest on the West Coast of any carrier, serving 104 nonstop destinations across North America. Including Tokyo Narita and Seoul Incheon, the company plans to serve at least 12 nonstop global destinations with long-haul widebody aircraft from our Seattle gateway by 2030, with further specifics on where and when to be revealed later. The company said, “We are also enhancing our newly combined domestic network with strategic changes to where, when and what type of aircraft we fly. Our primary goals are to improve performance, expand growth opportunities, and offer our guests increased choice, network connectivity and convenience. The adjustments begin to take effect in late March with our spring schedule and continue to roll out through the second quarter: More choices for our guests flying between the West Coast and Hawai?i: We’re updating our departures to improve our time-of-day coverage. We will offer 20% more seats between Seattle and Honolulu, with three of our six daily nonstop flights from Seattle to Honolulu on widebody Hawaiian aircraft. This helps us accommodate an expected increase in passenger and cargo demand. In Portland, there will be three daily nonstops to Honolulu with convenient staggered departure times and a 25% increase in available seats. We’re also improving connectivity in San Diego – a growing West Coast gateway to Hawai?i for Air Group – with mid-morning and late afternoon departures to Maui instead of just morning departures, and newly timed mid-afternoon and redeye departures from Maui. Improved connectivity for East Coast and Midwest flights to Hawai’i: We will offer an adjusted flight schedule using our combined network to allow for flights from the East Coast and Midwest to connect more easily on the West Coast before heading to the Islands. In addition to the new redeye between Maui and San Diego, we are adding three more overnight flights from Hawai?i to the West Coast: Honolulu and Maui to Portland, and Honolulu to San Francisco. The redeye flights unlock new connections for our flyers across the continental U.S. and will boost the utilization of Hawaiian aircraft. Improved connectivity will open greater access to Hawai’i for guests throughout our network and strengthen nonstop and one-stop access to destinations across North America for Hawai’i residents. Maximizing widebody flying: To accommodate additional guests, we will fly Hawaiian’s larger A330 aircraft on three flights between Honolulu and Seattle and move to one daily flight with an A330 between Honolulu and Sacramento. During the peak summer season in the state of Alaska, we will deploy Hawaiian A330 aircraft to fly between Seattle and Anchorage to take advantage of the aircraft’s higher seating and cargo capacity. Alaska and Hawaiian have complementary cargo networks, with cargo playing a crucial role in the communities they serve. Alaska will fly at least 18 daily roundtrips this summer between Seattle and Anchorage. New nonstops between San Francisco and the Islands: We’re adding new nonstops on Alaska between San Francisco and both Kona on Hawai’i Island and Lihu’e on Kaua?i. San Francisco-Kona service will be four times a week starting June 12, 2025, and San Francisco-Lihu?e will be three times a week starting June 13, 2025. With these new flights, Alaska and Hawaiian will offer four daily nonstop flights to the four main Hawaiian Islands from San Francisco, one of our key West Coast hubs. The new flights are available for purchase now at alaskaair.com and hawaiianairlines.com. Adding more flying with the Hawaiian brand: To better utilize the fleet, we’ve increased the number of hours Hawaiian’s Boeing 787-9 and Airbus A321 aircraft fly daily. This means more flying time for Hawaiian’s crews and more union jobs. The A321s will fly 25% more than they did before. This strategy mitigates the impact of delayed Boeing 737 deliveries while enabling us to expand our overall network reach. Alaska and Hawaiian continue to work on obtaining a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a process that is expected to be completed by October 2025. Each airline will operate separately until the certificate is issued. Even with the combination into one great airline, the company will keep the two brands our guests love so much.”