Alaska Airways’ operations are principally again on monitor in the wake of a major IT outage on Thursday evening. Now, the Seattle-based service is shifting forward with a giant 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’s going to additionally start flying to Arcata-Eureka Airport (ACV), positioned 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 fully 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 most recent in a wave of development for Alaska within the Southern California metropolis.
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Even previous to Friday’s announcement, the service’s whole seats from SAN had been set to be up 38% throughout the first half of 2026 versus 2025, in keeping with knowledge from aviation analytics agency Cirium.
Alaska may also launch 4 new or returning routes from Portland, the place its early-2026 seats had 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 certainly one of our fastest-growing hubs whereas Portland and Hawai’i are important elements of our international community,” Kirsten Amrine, Alaska vp of income administration and community planning, stated in a press release.
Sadly, it isn’t all excellent news. Alaska additionally revealed it could make cutbacks at two of its largest West Coast hubs — specifically, 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 have to be disciplined with our plane in 2026, as fewer new plane enter our fleet,” the service stated in a press release 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
This is the complete rundown of Alaska’s 13 new and returning routes introduced this week:
| Route | Launch date (frequency) | Plane |
|---|---|---|
| SAN to Dallas Fort Value Worldwide Airport (DFW) | April 22 (twice every day) | Boeing 737 |
| SAN to Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK) | April 22 (4 instances every day) | Embraer 175 |
| SAN to Raleigh-Durham Worldwide Airport (RDU) | April 22 (every day) | Boeing 737 |
| SAN to Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) | April 22 (twice every day) | Embraer 175 |
| SAN-TUL | March 18 (every day) | Embraer 175 |
| PDX to Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) | Could 13 (every day throughout the summer season season) | Boeing 737 |
| PDX to Idaho Falls Regional Airport (IDA) | Could 13 (every day) | Embraer 175 |
| PDX to Philadelphia Worldwide Airport (PHL) | Could 13 (every day throughout the summer season season) | Boeing 737 |
| PDX to St. Louis Lambert Worldwide Airport (STL) | Could 13 (every day throughout the summer season season) | Boeing 737 |
| SEA-ACV | April 8 (every day) | Embraer 175 |
| SEA-TUL | March 19 (every day) | Embraer 175 |
| Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) to Honolulu’s Daniel Ok. Inouye Worldwide Airport (HNL) | Could 13 (every day throughout the summer season season) | Boeing 737 |
| Ontario Worldwide Airport (ONT) to Charles M. Schulz Airport (STS) in Santa Rosa, California | March 18 (every day) | Embraer 175 |
4 of the 13 routes had 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 not too long ago 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 side Hawaiian Airways, which it acquired final yr.
This system maintained Alaska’s popular 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 manner for vacationers to show hire funds into airline factors.
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