Although the summer travel season is in full swing, Alaska Airlines is already planning for a busy winter.
Seattle-based carrier announced A major network expansion on Wednesday that includes 18 new routes, all but one of which will operate seasonally during the winter.
Alaska is also adding a new destination: Eagle, Colorado, which serves nearby Vail Resort—one of the nation’s premier ski destinations. The airline will serve the area’s Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE) with thrice-weekly flights from San Diego and Seattle.
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Unless a competitor retaliates, Alaska will enjoy a monopoly on both routes to Vail.
Seven of the new routes will be operated by regional affiliates using Embraer 175 aircraft, while the remainder will operate on expanded mainline Boeing 737s.
You’ll find the full list of new routes below, but the overarching theme of the entire expansion focuses on connecting travelers to popular winter recreation destinations.
This includes a mix of warm-weather destinations like Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, as well as destinations like Reno, Nevada and Bozeman, Montana that will attract travelers who love winter activities and adventures.
With this announcement, Alaska will become the largest US carrier between the West Coast and Latin America. That’s thanks to new nonstop service from San Francisco and Seattle to Liberia, Costa Rica. (Seattle is Alaska’s largest hub, and the city will now be home to 104 nonstop routes operated by Alaska.)
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The announcement comes just a week after Alaska unveiled a significant expansion with new nonstop routes to La Paz and Monterrey in Mexico.
For Alaska, this renewed focus on catering to leisure travelers comes as business traffic in some of the airline’s main hubs has not fully recovered during the pandemic. For an airline with large operations in San Francisco and Seattle, Alaska’s operations, at least for its business travel segment, are particularly tied to the region’s big tech companies, which are not traveling as much as before the pandemic.
In fact, many of these new routes are actually point-to-point routes between outstations. For example, flights from Boise to Orlando, New York to Puerto Vallarta, and St. Louis to Puerto Vallarta have not necessarily historically fit with Alaska’s network strategy.
But with business travel still not fully recovered, it seems prudent to try some point-to-point leisure flying to Alaska to see how it works.
Alaska also clarified in its announcement that these flights are for leisure travelers looking for “dream winter getaways.”
“We’re thrilled to offer convenient connections for guests across our network with this expansion—whether checking destinations off their bucket lists or setting off on their favorite winter getaways, we’ve put together an exciting array of tropical destination options in Mexico. North America’s most more popular ski slopes,” Kirsten Amarin, vice president of network planning and revenue management, said in a statement.
All new routes will be available for sale by Thursday.
18 new routes to Alaska
route | Commencement Date | Closing date | frequency | fleet |
---|---|---|---|---|
Fresno, California-Guadaljara, Mexico | December 3, 2024 | February 12, 2025 | Daily | 737 |
Boise-Bozeman | December 19, 2024 | March 17, 2025 | Five times a week | E175 |
Boise-Orange County, California | December 19, 2024 | throughout the year | Daily | E175 |
Los Angeles-Kelowna, British Columbia | December 19, 2024 | March 17, 2025 | Daily | E175 |
San Diego-Reno | December 19, 2024 | April 21, 2025 | Daily | E175 |
San Diego-Vail (Eagle County) | December 20, 2024 | March 16, 2025 | three times a week | E175 |
Seattle-Vail (Eagle County) | December 20, 2024 | March 16, 2025 | three times a week | E175 |
San Francisco-Liberia | December 21, 2024 | May 10, 2025 | once in a week | 737 |
Seattle-Liberia | December 21, 2024 | May 11, 2025 | once in a week | 737 |
Sacramento-Los Cabos | January 6, 2025 | April 21, 2025 | Five times a week | 737 |
Sacramento-Tucson | January 6, 2025 | April 21, 2025 | Daily | E175 |
Sacramento-Orlando | January 6, 2025 | April 21, 2025 | four times a week | 737 |
Boise-Orlando | January 7, 2025 | March 25, 2025 | three times a week | 737 |
New York-Puerto Vallarta | January 8, 2025 | April 20, 2025 | four times a week | 737 |
Sacramento-Puerto Vallarta | Jan. 11, 2025 | April 19, 2025 | once in a week | 737 |
Kansas City, Missouri-Cancun | Jan. 18, 2025 | June 7, 2025 | once in a week | 737 |
Kansas City-Puerto Vallarta | January 25, 2025 | April 5, 2025 | once in a week | 737 |
St. Louis-Puerto Vallarta | January 25, 2025 | April 5, 2025 | once in a week | 737 |
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