The west coast is getting a lot more connected thanks to an expanding Alaska Airlines route map. The carrier is bringing new and expanded service online starting in early January 2020 to connect many of its smaller Pacific Northwest destinations to its hubs at Los Angeles and San Francisco, adding more options for those passengers who must typically connect via Seattle today. The bulk of the new service will be operated on Embraer E175 jets.
We’re excited to offer even more nonstops between vibrant Pacific Northwest communities and our growing hubs in California. Whether it’s travel for a weekend getaway to Missoula or a day trip to San Francisco, we’re proud to offer nearly 600 daily flights between West Coast cities.
– Brett Catlin, Alaska Airlines managing director of capacity planning and alliances
Spokane is a big winner with the news, adding a pair of Los Angeles flights on 7 January 2020 and a pair of San Francisco flights on 19 March. In both cases the flight times are optimized to allow a full day of work for Spokane resident at the new destinations on a day trip. Boise also adds a pair of Los Angeles flights on 19 March, also well timed for a full day in LA. Missoula gets a single daily trip to the southern California hub and Redmond/Bend, Oregon picks up three new routes, covering San Francisco, LA and San Diego, each flying once daily.
Alaska Airlines will also connect two of its hubs with a new 737 service between Anchorage and San Francisco. The flights will operate as daylight trips in both directions and will fly year-round, both an improvement over the seasonal redeye service offered from United Airlines.
In addition to the new routes Alaska Airlines is also expanding frequencies in several existing markets. On 7 January the SFO-Orange County market increases from six to seven daily flights while San Diego-Orlando shifts from 5x weekly to daily service. On 19 March the company adds a second daily flight from San Francisco to Chicago, Boise and Santa Rosa. San Diego-San Jose also expands from four to six daily flights at that time. Finally, on 21 May the carrier adds a second daily San Diego-Boston flight.
Expanding service to bypass the Seattle hub helps connect many passengers better to Mexico and other leisure destinations while also relieving pressure on a very crowded Seattle operation. It is another strong step in the maturation of the Alaska Air route network and should help the carrier compete better against United, Delta and Southwest on the west coast.
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They are also cutting a lot of routes out of SAN/SFO. Huge retreat from those markets.
SFO-PHL/RDU/BNA/BWI/ABQ/MCI are all cut starting early Nov. SJC-DAL is also gone.
LAX loses PHL.
SAN loses ELP, ABQ, MCI, MSP, OMA, STL
Definitely some cuts as well (there always are), though hard to say it is a true retreat. The transcon routes have been shaky for a while, especially PHL. But focusing the regional fleet on regional operations should improve yields, reliability and connecting flow.
We used to fly nonstop ftom JFK to Las Vegas. Not anynore. Now we must make a connecting fligjt. Not happy about that. We’re going back to Jet Blue..
Three airlines will be flying from Redmond to LAX: American, United and Alaska. None of these airlines flew to LAX from Redmond a few years ago. LAX service from secondary Oregon airports like Medford and Redmond seems to come and go.
It is interesting to see Alaska triple down on Redmond while adding no service to Eugene or Medford. There is more traffic overall out of both Eugene and Medford. They did try Eugene-San Jose a few years ago but that didn’t last long.
The SFO flights will face an uphill battle due to higher frequencies and connectivity on United. It looks like United is flying into Redmond five times today from SFO.
Some of those transcontinental routes will undoubtedly return next spring/summer.
So San Diego(SAN DIEGO?? ) gets direct service to Orlando, while PDX /Tampa has to be commuter blighted thru SEATAC? Oh boy, not enough vacationers in Portland N Washington? Oh brother!
I’m not that surprised. Orlando is a bigger market than Tampa. Ditto San Diego compared to Portland.
I would like to say my grandson is active duty just getting started and he flew Alaska Tuesday morning they moved him up to first class. May not mean alot to some but to him and myself thank you.