This popped up when I opened the WSJ app this evening. I assume it is paywalled but overall it is fairly positive.
This is just what it sounds like: a simple map of the mainline flights out of an AS hub with a one-way load factor of at least 87.5% (e.g., 7/8s full).
This month, a lot of Hawaii flights again qualified and going to NYC, DC, and Alaska was popular too. Every EWR route qualified (SEA, PDX, SFO, LAX, SAN). Seattle to Toronto is a new appearance, despite the politics. Several LAX flights to Mexico and Central America showed up as well, as did SEA-NRT.
The "methodology" is simply to put the hubs into a load factor tool (link) and then enter the flights (with more than 10 departures) that meet the threshold into a map tool. Thus, it you were on one of these outbound hub-originating flights in May 2026, it was likely pretty full.
Some daily+ flights on the opposite end of the spectrum: SFO-SAN (49.8%) and AS continues to run 2-3x/day SAN-ORD at 65%. The first full month of SAN-RDU was 77%, which seems like a solid start (other than sub-daily Breeze, AS is the only carrier). SAN-DFW (57.8%) is also new but that is a route with more competition (AA runs it 7x/day).
Again, this is just mainline one-way and does not include Horizon or SkyWest flights or infrequent flights (e.g., less then 10 flights in May). As always, I try for accuracy, but errors do occur.
Link to map.
This is just what it sounds like: a simple map of the mainline flights out of an AS hub with a one-way load factor of at least 87.5% (e.g., 7/8s full).
This month, a lot of Hawaii flights again qualified and going to NYC, DC, and Alaska was popular too. Every EWR route qualified (SEA, PDX, SFO, LAX, SAN). Seattle to Toronto is a new appearance, despite the politics. Several LAX flights to Mexico and Central America showed up as well, as did SEA-NRT.
The "methodology" is simply to put the hubs into a load factor tool (link) and then enter the flights (with more than 10 departures) that meet the threshold into a map tool. Thus, it you were on one of these outbound hub-originating flights in May 2026, it was likely pretty full.
Some daily+ flights on the opposite end of the spectrum: SFO-SAN (49.8%) and AS continues to run 2-3x/day SAN-ORD at 65%. The first full month of SAN-RDU was 77%, which seems like a solid start (other than sub-daily Breeze, AS is the only carrier). SAN-DFW (57.8%) is also new but that is a route with more competition (AA runs it 7x/day).
Again, this is just mainline one-way and does not include Horizon or SkyWest flights or infrequent flights (e.g., less then 10 flights in May). As always, I try for accuracy, but errors do occur.
Link to map.
Still early days for the European routes but the Asian routes seem to be firming up. The usual caveats about load factor being just a single datapoint apply, of course.
You never know what you’ll see. The Blue Angels are here and they buzzed the airport at low altitude in formation, which surprised me. Also, Gate B1 looks to be very close to opening.
I thought it might be interesting to take a look at AS flights to JFK, including competitors on the same routes.
I just looked at mainland flights, so for these purposes, AS serves JFK from SEA, PDX, SFO, and SAN. (That excludes a daily flight from HNL.) AS also served JFK from PSP and PVR, presumably to preserve the slot(s) -- they cannot be routes that make strategic or business sense. There is no AS service from LAX. JFK has major operations for American, Delta, and JetBlue, and those are the (generally larger) competitors on most routes.
This just looks at seats offered and load factor, so there’s a lot of key missing information, including fares and yields, etc. All the usual caveats about inferences or conclusions from limited data apply. The data is from Jan-Apr 2026 and it is all one-way from the AS hub -- return numbers eyeball as a little lower for AS.
There is also a seasonal ANC flight. Given the popularity of flights to JFK, the PSP/PVR flights are bewildering to me. I assume that if they wanted to fly more frequencies from SEA/PDX/SFO/SAN, they would have done it already. That suggests they are waiting for something and the only thing that springs to mind is the construction at LAX, which makes sense. Others likely have more insight and better observations.
During the same time period, AS also served NYC via EWR from SEA/PDX/SFO/LAX/SAN.
As always, despite my best efforts, there might be errors in the data, as I do this manually.
I've been digging out from under accumulated work, but wanted to note a recent delay experience on AS. It was a frustrating experience -- all delays are --but it was ultimately handled as well as it could have been handled, so it gets a compliment.
Right after we arrived at SFO, Flighty started indicating a delay because of issues with our plane in SEA. That proved accurate and eventually AS told us the same thing via the app and texts. So we headed to the lounge to use my Summit pass (literally the reason I value the passes more than many others do) and waited out the 3 hour delay. Our plane finally arrived and we boarded, and the preflight checks led to some sort of issue with a light and/or switch in the cockpit. Maintenance came in and ultimately called Seattle, which confirmed cancellation. (Nobody said so, but it seemed like the earlier issue resurfaced.) We all got off the plane and they said they'd try to "find another plane."
So back to the lounge! They actually did manage to find a new plane (I assume one that was supposed to overnight at SFO) within 90 minutes and we boarded about 90 minutes later (the exact times are hazy). We went from a 900ER to a MAX9 so everything stayed the same in terms of seat assignments. The same pilots and crew stayed on as well. There was some passenger attrition, so I was even upgraded to first as Silver (which went to my wife). Everything was uneventful after that and pretty much everyone seemed to roll with it, even others (like us) with kids. The lounge staff was excellent in keeping us in the loop (and with service generally) and the food and drinks were good. The Summit pass covered me and a guest so I paid for one day pass too, which was absolutely worth it.
We got a $50 voucher for food which we did not use because the lounge was easier and $150 credits for our next flights. That all happened automatically. [Edit: The $50 is actually a credit not a voucher.]
I'm glad it happened at SFO with its large, nice (and underutilized) lounge. Plus, SFO is busy enough that they could locate another aircraft so we could get out that night. According to Flighty, this is my longest delay ever (by more than 4 hours) over about 100 flights, mostly on AS.
One question: I have long assumed -- rightly or wrongly -- that all AS mainline pilots can fly any 737. Do all 737s have the same type rating or do all the pilots have multiple type ratings? My impression is that there is a primary rating of some sort and then there are differences that they have to train for. Anyone know for sure? As indicated above, we went from NG to MAX with the same pilots.
New to me. The hanger tour seems more interesting to me but the flight simulators would be intriguing.
There are often posts about whether a certain category of status is “worth it.” Of course, that is purely subjective and depends on your individual preferences. But there are some objective factual issues, including whether you are upgraded to first.
Armed with Flighty and my old boarding passes from Apple Wallet, I decided to look at myself as a case study. As background, I am in Portland, am Silver, and have a Summit card. To the extent they are relevant to upgrades, I tend to book early and check in early as well. I do not book Saver.
Almost all my flying is west of the Rockies, and my most frequent routes are to SLC and SFO. I prefer the E175 for these flights and book a flight on that plane if I can. I generally have flexibility in my flying times, so I do not generally fly early in the morning and often fly at non-peak times (e.g., mid-day and late evening).
So far this year, I have 16 flights on AS (2 were AA code shares). 10/16 were E175s. I’ve been upgraded to first 5 times (about 30%): PDX-SFO, OAK-PDX, PDX-BOI, BOI-PDX, and SLC-PDX, all on E175s.
I assume – without actually knowing – that upgrades on shorter flights are more common, as people may be less likely to pay for first on a short trip so there are more seats available for upgrades. Similarly, I assume that the value of first is reduced on an E175 because there’s zero possibility of a middle seat and getting off the plane is fairly speedy, even in the back. A short flight reduces the value of the upgrade, of course, but I never expect an upgrade and always appreciate it. Flights back to PDX have had better odds of an upgrade than flights out of PDX, which makes sense.
Once the Summit annual 10K status points are posted later this year, I will hit Gold and am curious what that does to my upgrade stats. I am also broadly curious how much work the Summit card is doing on the upgrades themselves, as that factor is relatively high on the list (and I sometimes wonder whether I overestimate the number of Summit cards that are out there).
Other Flighty facts: 5/16 flights were delayed for a total of 1 hour of delay (both AA flights were delayed, one of which accounted for half of my overall delay time) but cumulatively my flights arrived 1hr 18 min early. I think I have been pretty fortunate. I’ve flown to 9 airports this year (and will add at least two more in the coming months).
In the next few years, AS says it expects to receive 50 737-10s, 25 in 2027 and 25 more in 2028. It also expects to receive 5 737-8s as well. For these purposes, we will assume certification and deliveries to AS in some quantity.
The HA A321s will stick around and few narrowbodies are set to be retired, though some 737-800s may head to Hawaii to fly inter-island in that timeframe. Regardless, there will be a meaningful expansion in the AS mainline fleet, consisting of a large influx of what will be their largest Boeing narrowbody.
The planes will have to fly somewhere, with the 737-10s likely to be deployed on busy routes that justify a bigger plane. That will likely displace some 737-9s and 900ERs, freeing them for other routes. Some of these will be used for additional frequencies on existing routes but surely there will be many new (and restarted) routes, and some seasonal routes might become year-round.
There have been suggestions tossed about, and I decided to put some thoughts on a map. This excludes regional flights because they are E175s, and Hawaii, as the bulk of that traffic will continue to be A321s and A330s. (These are generalizations, as current regional routes can be upgauged and some 737s do and will fly to Hawaii.) I also limited this to mainland domestic.
Obviously, these are armchair quarterback musings from the cheap seats, but I thought I’d do it anyway, even without a sliver of the facts one would need to even begin contemplating such a task. A few animating thoughts:
AS is surely already serving its best routes so many of these suggested new routes might seem less compelling. It was actually more challenging than I thought to select these, even as poorly as I have done so. There are almost 30 routes here and the planes will arrive slowly so additions will also come slowly. However even if Boeing only delivers 15 planes, at 2-3 flights/day per plane, that means approximately 15-20 new daily round trips.
Just a thought post, obviously so critique away, and feel free to post your own Top 10.
EDIT: It appears my phrasing in the title was confusing, for which I apologize. Perhaps a better title would have been potential new routes given the influx of new planes in 2027-2028.
Link to map.
I posted about AS in the Pacific Northwest, which obviously includes numerous routes involving SEA and PDX. The first map is the non-SEA/PDX AS routes from the region.
The next two maps are some of the competition, WN and AA. I simply looked at their routes this week on FR24 and entered them into a map program. Like AS, they do not include SEA/PDX, as it makes the map pretty complicated.
As you'd expect, AA essentially just runs to its hubs. I have not confirmed, but I suspect a number of these routes are seasonal (e.g., FCA, BZN, IDA). AA does serve several routes headed east that AS does not serve outside of SEA/PDX. (I only went as far east as Chicago.)
WN has a far more robust network to California and competes head-to-head with AS on multiple routes, particularly from the GEG and BOI (but also EUG). WN does not serve many of the smaller destinations that AS serves from SEA/PDX. (PAE-LAS is on the map, but it looks to be essentially a one-off though I did not dig deeper). (I went as far east as Nashville.) WN is a bigger player than a expected.
This is plainly artificial since it does not include the two largest airports in the region, but sometimes a narrower perspective is interesting.
This is obviously missing DL and UA, and DL has a robust network to its hubs in SEA and SLC and is a substantial competitor. A quick look suggests that UA runs to its hubs (SFO and DEN are closest) and it looks to have a heavy seasonal schedule to the popular leisure destinations. But I reached my limit in typing airport codes into a map.
As always, I did my best, but mistakes are inevitable. Also, lines on a map miss crucial information such as frequency and some of the WN routes (e.g., BOI-BUR) are non-daily.
I was curious about how the current Alaska network in the Pacific Northwest looked on a map, so I put it on a map. To me, a substantial portion of the AS strategy is to dominate the region (defined here as WA, OR, ID, and MT) and funnel as many folks as possible through SEA or PDX and hope everyone in the region walks around with an Ascent card. I assume the primary nearby competition is DL via SEA/SLC and UA via DEN.
The network is pretty robust and AS is running out of places to link up to PDX (though it could narrow some of the frequency disparities between SEA and PDX). The only non-hub route right now seems to be BOI-GEG.
AS looks to have the strongest network to California from some of the larger smaller cities (e.g., BOI-BUR, BOI-ONT, BOI-SNA, BOI-SJC, GEG-SNA, EUG-BUR, RDM-BUR, PAE-SNA, etc.). Just eyeballing some of the load factors, they are not really packing the planes full, but I assume AS gets a non-stop premium as well as a loyalty boost. They also generally have SFO, LAX, and SAN as well, of course.
Nothing surprising from mapping it, but I may be missing nuances. I do wonder if there are some point-to-point routes that might work someday, but my sense of the intra-regional traffic is non-existent. Based on nothing, perhaps RDM-BOI.
Link to map. Again, "methodology" is to look at this week's flights on FR (thus, this is just the summer schedule) and pop them into a map site, hoping I don't miss too many.
Edit: Looks like I also included NW WY in my definition.
A small add but perhaps one of interest to Portland skiers. It looks like AS already serves seasonally from SEA and SAN.
OregonLive:
>Alaska Airlines announced Thursday that it is starting a direct route from Portland to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, starting in 2027.
>This is the first time the airline is operating directly between the Portland International Airport and the Yampa Valley Regional Airport, which is about 30 minutes outside Steamboat Springs, spokesperson Sarah Lasky said.
>The new route will operate Thursdays and Saturdays from Feb. 11 through March in 2027, timed to coincide with ski season in Colorado. Departing flights will be scheduled to leave Portland at 10:40 a.m., landing in Steamboat Springs at 2:05 p.m. Return flights leave the Rocky Mountains at 2:45 p.m., scheduled to land back in the Pacific Northwest at 4:35 p.m.
I just noticed it today, but perhaps it has been happening for a while. "seattletimesnewsroom" appears to have a bot that automatically posts its AS-related articles on this sub, regardless of whether there is a post on the topic already. The links are behind a paywall so they are inaccessible to everyone other than subscribers, making them essentially marketing. Thus, the posts are both helpful and not helpful and, at best, skirt the "use the search feature before posting" rule, resulting in parallel discussions on the same topic.
Perhaps this is a moderator question but I thought I would make it a post. Apologies if this is the wrong approach.
Sample below:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AlaskaAirlines/comments/1v2xx2n/alaska_air_posts_76m_quarterly_loss_amid/
I have not carefully studied this, but the upshot appears to be that Q2 wasn't as bad as feared and they are cautiously optimistic about meaningful improvement in Q3.
This has been hinted at before (and I assume this article is based on new information), but perhaps it might be closer to actually happening:
>Iberia appears to be evaluating four additional nonstop routes between Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD) and the United States as the Spanish flag carrier continues its rapid North American expansion. A newly circulated planning map indicates that the airline is studying service to Atlanta, Detroit, Seattle, and Las Vegas, complementing an already growing transatlantic network from its Madrid hub. While none of the routes have been officially announced, the proposal offers insight into where Iberia sees future growth opportunities as demand for Spain-US travel remains strong....
>Seattle presents a different strategic opportunity. While Delta has expanded aggressively at SEA over the past decade, the airport also serves as the primary hub for Alaska Airlines, one of Iberia's fellow oneworld members. A nonstop Madrid service could benefit from Alaska's extensive West Coast network, allowing passengers to connect beyond Seattle to destinations throughout the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and the western United States.
Certainly more oneworld longhaul flights at SEA would be good for AS, but I assume this would also take this route off the potential AS list (if it happened).
Once again, this is just as it sounds: the summer route network of another AS hub. This is the AS SFO schedule now and does not account for changes that will happen.
There’s much lamenting in this sub regarding the current state of the SFO “hub” and it is easy to see why. Like LAX, there’s no shortage of routes that one could say a credible hub “should” have (e.g., BOS, ATL, ORD, DFW, DEN, SLC, PHX, MCO, etc.). One hopes that when AS starts receiving its MAX10s, then some new planes will restart some of the last routes that were dropped.
The SFO lounge is nice, and SF is obviously one of the key cities in the footprint (presumably for credit cards too), so letting SFO languish is a puzzling choice to me.
The chart provides a sense for the number of departures and seats offered (in April 2026). The highest volume destinations are no surprise: SEA, LAX, PDX. The mainline SFO-SAN load factors look dreadful and (AS runs far behind UA and WN on that nominally hub-to-hub route). Note that the chart does not include SkyWest flights.
Again, “methodology” is to look at this week’s flights on FR24 and type them into a map site.
Link to map.
It has been around for a little while now, but it is my first time and people seem to like photos. It is nice and big, and not (yet) crowded, though I arrived well before my departure bank. Obviously a huge step up from the prior lounge. Great for watching the planes, though the shades are down because it is a warm afternoon.
This is just what it sounds like: a simple map of the mainline flights out of an AS hub with a one-way load factor of at least 88.5%. (There didn't seem to be enough to do the usual 90%.)
This month, a lot of flights from HNL qualified and going to DCA was popular too. The now-cancelled LAX to Cancun flight shows up, plus there are the usual popular flights to MCO, BOS, and EWR, among others.
The "methodology" is simply to put the hubs into a load factor tool (link below) and then enter the flights (with more than 10 departures) that meet the threshold into a map tool. Thus, it you were on one of these outbound hub-originating flights in April 2026, it was likely pretty full.
The query is in the third image and those interested in more data can find it via the links below. Again, this is just mainline one-way and does not include Horizon or SkyWest flights or truly infrequent flights.
The April numbers are showing up and that's the first month with any data for Rome (albeit just a tiny number of flights).
Because it is just a few flights, I included both directions (but did not do any arithmetic) and for Asia, there was a much higher load factor to SEA than from SEA.
I do not know the seasonality for inbound Asia travel (I assume that's what it is but others surely have more insight and it has been a tumultuous time internationally), but seats from ICN to SEA were hard to come by, with Asiana at one of the highest LFs I have seen: 99.7%. (Other carriers are in the second chart.)