Alaska Airways’ operations are largely again on observe within the wake of a significant IT outage on Thursday evening. Now, the Seattle-based service is shifting forward with an enormous route community shakeup for 2026.
Subsequent spring, Alaska will fly its planes to 2 U.S. cities for the primary time.
Between March and April, the Seattle-based service will launch nonstop service from Tulsa, Oklahoma. It will additionally start flying to Arcata-Eureka Airport (ACV), situated in northern California — simply steps from the Pacific coast.
It is a part of a 13-route community shift Alaska introduced this week, which included a handful of completely new routes for the service, together with the return of others it hasn’t flown in a number of years.
The largest winners on this announcement: Alaska’s fastest-growing West Coast hubs — San Diego Worldwide Airport (SAN) and Portland Worldwide Airport (PDX) in Oregon.
San Diego will see three all-new routes be a part of Alaska’s community, together with nonstop Tulsa flights. It is the newest in a wave of progress for Alaska within the Southern California metropolis.
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Even previous to Friday’s announcement, the service’s complete seats from SAN have been set to be up 38% through the first half of 2026 versus 2025, in response to information from aviation analytics agency Cirium.
Alaska may even launch 4 new or returning routes from Portland, the place its early-2026 seats have been already set to develop 19%, per Cirium.
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Additionally included in Friday’s new-route lineup: one other hyperlink between California and Hawaii, a brief flight to California wine nation, and a few new routes to Alaska’s residence base at Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport (SEA).
“San Diego continues to be one in all our fastest-growing hubs whereas Portland and Hawai’i are important components of our international community,” Kirsten Amrine, Alaska vp of income administration and community planning, mentioned in an announcement.
Sadly, it is not all excellent news. Alaska additionally revealed it will make cutbacks at two of its largest West Coast hubs — particularly, Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX) and San Francisco Worldwide Airport (SFO). Information of the cuts was first reported by trade watcher Ishrion Aviation.
“These changes are firmly rooted within the should be disciplined with our plane in 2026, as fewer new plane enter our fleet,” the service mentioned in an announcement to TPG Saturday. “Though these choices are troublesome, SFO and LAX stay key markets for us.”
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Alaska’s 13 new and returning routes
Here is the complete rundown of Alaska’s 13 new and returning routes introduced this week:
| Route | Launch date (frequency) | Plane |
|---|---|---|
| SAN to Dallas Fort Price Worldwide Airport (DFW) | April 22 (twice day by day) | Boeing 737 |
| SAN to Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK) | April 22 (4 occasions day by day) | Embraer 175 |
| SAN to Raleigh-Durham Worldwide Airport (RDU) | April 22 (day by day) | Boeing 737 |
| SAN to Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) | April 22 (twice day by day) | Embraer 175 |
| SAN-TUL | March 18 (day by day) | Embraer 175 |
| PDX to Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) | Might 13 (day by day through the summer time season) | Boeing 737 |
| PDX to Idaho Falls Regional Airport (IDA) | Might 13 (day by day) | Embraer 175 |
| PDX to Philadelphia Worldwide Airport (PHL) | Might 13 (day by day through the summer time season) | Boeing 737 |
| PDX to St. Louis Lambert Worldwide Airport (STL) | Might 13 (day by day through the summer time season) | Boeing 737 |
| SEA-ACV | April 8 (day by day) | Embraer 175 |
| SEA-TUL | March 19 (day by day) | Embraer 175 |
| Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) to Honolulu’s Daniel Okay. Inouye Worldwide Airport (HNL) | Might 13 (day by day through the summer time season) | Boeing 737 |
| Ontario Worldwide Airport (ONT) to Charles M. Schulz Airport (STS) in Santa Rosa, California | March 18 (day by day) | Embraer 175 |
4 of the 13 routes have been flights Alaska beforehand operated. The service final flew from its PDX hub to BWI and PHL in 2019. It final flew from Portland to St. Louis in 2018.
And, Alaska operated flights between San Diego and Santa Barbara as lately as 2022.
Relating to Alaska’s three new transcontinental routes, the brand new flights to RDU, BWI and Philly will give every East Coast airport a second metropolis on Alaska. Presently, the service serves every from its SeaTac residence base, however none of its different West Coast hubs.
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These community modifications from Alaska come simply two months after the service debuted its Atmos Rewards loyalty program along with Hawaiian Airways, which it acquired final 12 months.
This system maintained Alaska’s standard award chart, which has helped many savvy vacationers discover low cost flight redemptions. It additionally left in place direct transfers from Bilt Rewards — a preferred means for vacationers to show hire funds into airline factors.
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