Alaska Airlines today announced 10 new routes, five of which are to Florida, and it’s a huge surprise to me.
Alaska Airlines Adds New LAX Routes
Alaska Airlines has revealed seven new routes outside of LAX, complementing a recent company announcement of five new routes outside of LAX. This means that overall Alaska is adding a dozen new routes outside of LAX in 2020.
With this latest development, Alaska Airlines is launching the following nonstop flights from LAX:
- Daily service to Eugene from October 1, 2020, using Embraer 175
- Daily service to Medford beginning October 1, 2020, using Embraer 175
- Daily service to Bozeman starting November 20, 2020, using Embraer 175
- Weekly service 4 times to Fort Myers beginning November 20, 2020, using 737
- Daily service to Tampa beginning November 20, 2020, using 737
- Weekly service 3 times to Kona starting December 17, 2020, using 737
- Weekly service 4 times to Lihue from December 18, 2020, using 737
Alaska is launching seven new routes from LAX
Of these, what I find most interesting is the following:
- Alaska continues to add flights to Tampa, complementing Seattle’s existing service; Alaska will go head to head against Delta and Southwest in this market
- The Fort Myers route was a surprise, as this will be the first nonstop flight between the West Coast and Fort Myers; Given the lack of service in Southwest Florida, otherwise, along with the limited frequency, I could see this working
Alaska Airlines Expansion into Florida
In total, Alaska Airlines is adding five new routes to Florida. There are the two previous routes (from Los Angeles to Fort Myers and Tampa) and Alaska Airlines will also add the following routes:
- Weekly service 4 times from Portland to Fort Lauderdale beginning November 20, 2020, using 737
- Weekly service 4 times from Seattle to Fort Myers beginning November 21, 2020, using 737
- Weekly 3x service from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale beginning November 21, 2020, using 737
Wowzers:
- Alaska will not only launch one route to Fort Myers, but two routes, which is quite impressive
- Portland and San Diego to Fort Lauderdale service complements existing Alaska to Fort Lauderdale service from Los Angeles and Seattle
Alaska is launching five new routes to Florida
There are so many road surprises lately
This pandemic has crushed the airline industry, and most of us probably would not have expected many announcements of new routes or partnerships at this time. After all, we would expect airlines to restore existing routes before launching new ones, given the slow recovery in demand.
However, in many ways we have seen the opposite. While capacity as such has not been quickly added back, we have seen so many new routes and airline partnership announcements.
From the expansion of American Airlines in SEA, to the expansion of American Airlines in JFK, to the expansion of JetBlue in LAX, there have been quite a few surprises during all of this. Hopefully the creativity continues.
Both Alaska and JetBlue are expanding at LAX
Bottom line
It’s great to see Alaska Airlines expand outside of LAX and also add more Florida services. Alaska is adding a total of five transportation routes to Florida, including the first service from Fort Myers to the west coast.
It’s amazing to see this type of expansion, especially since it’s a surprise to most of us. Who would have expected this type of growth during the largest pandemic to hit the airline industry?
What do you think of Alaska Airlines’ new routes?
