Getting to the Caribbean From the West Coast Is Now Easier Than Ever

13.04.2024 - 01:01 / afar.com / Kirsten Amrine / Brian Sumers / Airlines

Travelers who live on the West Coast of the United States have long bemoaned the lack of direct flights to the Caribbean from international airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. Normally, flying to the Caribbean from the West Coast requires stopovers and plane changes in hubs like Atlanta, New York, Houston, or Miami. Between the time difference and the layovers, flying from the West Coast to the Caribbean can easily take at least a full day—or may even require an overnight stop. With closer warm-weather destinations like Mexico and Hawai‘i beckoning, many travelers in the Pacific time zone simply skip the Caribbean.

“The West Coast to the Caribbean long has been a tough nut to crack for airlines,” says Brian Sumers, industry analyst and author of “The Airline Observer,”an aviation newsletter. “These flights eat up a lot of aircraft time and carriers generally decide they’d rather use those 12 to 14 hours of [round-trip] airplane and crew time on more proven routes with better revenue.”

But this may be changing. Recently, Alaska Airlines, Cayman Airways, and JetBlue all introduced nonstop flights to the Caribbean from Los Angeles, with Alaska also launching a Seattle route. Here’s what to know and whether we can expect more Caribbean flights to take off from the West Coast.

Alaska Airlines is making it easier to relax Bahamian style.

Courtesy of Cristofer Maximilian/Unsplash

Alaska Airlines introduced new direct flights in December 2023 between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Nassau, Bahamas (NAS), as well as between Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and Nassau. The flight between Seattle and Nassau was the airport’s first-ever direct flight to the Bahamas.

The routes, which are taking place on Boeing 737s, kicked off with four weekly flights from Los Angeles and three a week from Seattle. The seasonal Seattle flights concluded this spring but are scheduled to resume in winter. The Los Angeles flights will continue through summer with one to two flights weekly until the winter schedule resumes in late November, according to the airline. The flight times from Seattle are listed at just a little more than 6 hours for both the outbound and return, while the L.A. flights show a 5-hour and 19-minute outbound time and a 6-hour and 13-minute return duration.

Alaska Airlines is “thrilled with the positive reception these routes have garnered, owed to their convenience and accessibility. With summer approaching, we look forward to continuing this nonstop service to our guests departing from Los Angeles,” according to Kirsten Amrine, vice president of revenue management and network planning for Alaska Airlines.

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