Alaska Airlines adds 18 routes, 1 new destination

Although the summer travel season is in full swing, Alaska Airlines is already planning for what will be a busy winter.

The Seattle-based carrier announced Wednesday a major network expansion that includes 18 new routes, all but one of which will operate seasonally during the winter.

Alaska is even adding an entirely new destination: Eagle, Colorado, which serves nearby Vail Resort—one of the country’s most popular ski destinations. The airline will serve the area’s Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE) with three times weekly flights from San Diego and Seattle.

Value Check: Are Airline Credit Cards Worth It?

Unless a competitor retaliates, Alaska will enjoy a monopoly on both routes to Vail.

Seven of the new routes will be operated by regional subsidiaries using Embraer 175 aircraft, while the rest of the expansion will operate on the Boeing 737 mainline.

You’ll find the full list of new routes below, but the overriding theme throughout the expansion is a focus on connecting travelers to popular winter leisure destinations.

This includes a mix of warm-weather destinations, such as Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, as well as those that will appeal to travelers who prefer winter activities and adventures, such as Reno, Nevada, and Bozeman, Montana.

With this announcement, Alaska will become the largest US carrier between the West Coast and Latin America. That’s thanks to new nonstop service to Liberia, Costa Rica, from San Francisco and Seattle. (Seattle is Alaska’s largest hub, and the city will now be home to 104 non-stop routes operated by Alaska.)

Want more airline-specific news? Sign up for TPG’s free bi-weekly aviation newsletter.

The announcement comes just a week after Alaska unveiled a notable expansion into Mexico with new nonstop routes to La Paz and Monterrey.

For Alaska, this renewed focus on catering to leisure travelers comes as business traffic at some of the airline’s main hubs has not fully recovered during the pandemic. For an airline with massive operations in San Francisco and Seattle, Alaska’s performance, at least for its business travel segment, is particularly tied to the region’s top tech companies, which haven’t traveled as much as they have. before the pandemic.

In fact, many of these new routes are actually point-to-point routes between stations. For example, flights from Boise to Orlando, from New York to Puerto Vallarta, and from St. Louis to Puerto Vallarta are not necessarily routes that will historically fit into Alaska’s network strategy.

But with business travel still not fully recovered, it seems reasonable for Alaska to try some leisure flights to see how it performs.

Alaska was even clear in its announcement that these flights are for leisure travelers looking for “dream winter getaways.”

“We’re excited to provide convenient connections for guests across our network with this expansion—whether checking destinations off their bucket lists or heading to their favorite winter getaways, we’ve put together an exciting range of options from tropical destinations throughout Mexico to the most popular ski slopes in North America,” said Kirsten Amrine, vice president of network planning and revenue management, in a statement.

All new lines will be available for sale by Thursday.

Alaska’s 18 New Roads

Related reading: