A summer getaway to Alaska just got easier. Alaska Airlines is launching the longest flight in their network, a direct from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Anchorage, Alaska. The seasonal flight will be the only direct route from the New York hub to Anchorage, and will begin daily operations on June 13, 2024. Due to the 3,386 mile distance of the route, the flight will be operated on a new Boeing 737-800, which can accommodate the longer flight time, according to a statement from the airline. In addition to the flight to New York, Alaska Airlines also announced the launch of a new nonstop from Anchorage to San Diego starting on May 18, 2024. This service will operate weekly, utilizing a Boeing 737 aircraft. «During our peak summer days, we'll have a robust flight schedule of 63 departures a day from Anchorage,» Alaska Airlines Regional Vice President Marilyn Romano said in the release.
Exciting new airline routes from September 2023 and beyond
02.10.2023 - 13:43 / thepointsguy.com / David Neeleman
Now that the summer is officially behind us, the airline industry is already looking ahead to next summer, when scores of Americans are expected to jet off to popular destinations across the world.
That's the underlying theme across many of the airline route-network updates that were shared in September. Travelers typically start looking for flights as early as about a year before departure, so it makes sense for carriers to announce their summer plans this far in advance.
Historically, summertime sees a dramatic rise in demand for transatlantic travel, and multiple carriers are leaning into that trend.
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Of course, there were a slew of other route updates in September, some noteworthy enough for a dedicated story and others that weren't. Either way, we've rounded up the highlights, so read on for the September route announcements you might've missed.
Even though September wasn't as splashy as American's August network update — which included its biggest transatlantic expansion since 2019 — the Fort Worth-based carrier kept busy this month.
The airline announced an all-new transcontinental route between Miami and Orange County, which covers one of the nation's most affluent catchment areas. The new service to the John Wayne Airport (SNA) joins recently announced service from Miami to Portland, Oregon, and Sacramento.
Airlines don't usually publish splashy press releases when they're cutting routes, so it's worth mentioning that the carrier is pulling out of three routes in the coming months, as first seen in Cirium schedules:
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This month, Alaska announced that it's adding a new route between Atlanta and San Diego.
Though San Diego is a base for the airline, Atlanta most definitely is not. When the airline announced the route, some aviation observers immediately commented that the new flight seemed aimed at Delta, which operates a fortress hub in Atlanta and which has encroached upon Alaska's dominance in Seattle in recent years.
Alaska is no stranger to a turf war both with Delta and with other airlines — Alaska recently started new flights between San Diego and United's hub in Washington Dulles — so it'll be interesting to see if and how Delta responds.
This wasn't the only interesting move that Alaska made this month. The carrier also scraped all domestic transcon redeyes to the Northeast from its schedule between early January and mid-February. The carrier says that "aircraft are being moved around and utilized for leisure markets during that timeframe."
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This time, the carrier is
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