In a move that was not totally unexpected, Alaska Airlines announced that it would establish its Seattle hub as a global gateway, adding 12 longhaul flights by 2030, including service to Tokyo Narita and Seoul Incheon in 2025. Let’s unpack the news and Alaska’s peculiar choice to use its Hawaiian A330-200 on the new routes.
Alaska Airlines Will Launch Longhaul Operations From Seattle Using Hawaiian Airlines A330-200 Jets
With the merger now complete, Alaksa will redeploy Hawaiian Airlines’ A330-200 in Seattle, operating service to Anchorage next summer and launching two new longhaul routes in 2025:
- Seattle (SEA) – Tokyo Narita (NRT) will operate daily starting in May 2025
- Flights are on sale now
- Seattle – Seoul Incheon (INC) will begin in October 2025
- Flight will go no sale “early” next year
Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci, pictured above, explained:
“We believe our guests will be as excited as we are about these new nonstop flights to Tokyo and Seoul – two of the world’s most dynamic cities. From our global gateway in Seattle, we can conveniently connect travelers from across our network as they head to Asia and beyond. Hawaiian’s spacious widebody aircraft, along with its excellent onboard service and amenities, will make for a terrific trip from one side of the Pacific Rim to the other.”
Beyond that, Alaska Airlines plans to launch 10 more longhaul routes from Seattle by 2030, hinting that destinations could include East Asia and Europe:
Hawaiian Airlines will operate the first two routes using Airbus A330-200 jets.
As an aside, Alaska also announced it would open a “flagship” lounge in Seattle, though has not yet specified whether this will be an international premium lounge similar to aDelta One, American Flagship, and United Polaris Lounge or simply a larger or more luxurious Alaska Lounge.
Why Would Alaska Use Dated A330 Jets?
Alaska will utilize Hawaiian A330-200 jets on the new transpacific routes. You can read my review of first class on the Hawaiian Airlines A330 here. While the aircraft is ideal for couples or families traveling to Hawaii together, it is hardly a competitive longhaul product.
Why would Alaska use this dated product on its new flagship longhaul routes?
Alaska does offer some insight in its Investor Day presentation:
Our new widebody service between Seattle and Tokyo Narita enables us to right-size our capacity between Hawaiʻi and Japan, a market that has experienced a weaker leisure travel demand in the wake of the pandemic. As we reposition the aircraft on the Honolulu-Tokyo Narita route to Seattle, we will offer more flying options between Honolulu and Tokyo Haneda – one of two international airports in Japan’s capital — by increasing Hawaiian’s service from 12 to 14 flights a week. Hawaiian will also continue to offer nonstop service between Honolulu and both Osaka and Fukuoka for a total of 24 weekly roundtrips between Hawaiʻi and Japan.
Alaska says “plans to expand premium cabins on the wide body fleet are being developed” but for now feels the capacity on the A330-200 is better suited for current market demands, even if that means a less competitive premium cabin product. Additionally, while Hawaiian’s flagship Boeing 787-9 fleet is being retrofitted with Starlink internet, the A330 fleet already has it. Finally, the A330 can carry more passengers and cargo than the premium-heavy 787-9.
CONCLUSION
A year ago I speculated that Alaska would eventually operate widebody service from Seattle and that has now been formally announced. The new service will begin using A330-200 jets to Tokyo Narita, followed by Seoul Incheon. These routes will be operated by Hawaiian Airlines to destinations already served by Hawaiian, making logistical arrangements far more straightforward.
With Alaska promising further growth from its Seattle hub, the news is very good for Alaska flyers.
> Read More: The Widebody Implications For Alaska Airlines Of Hawaiian Airlines Merger
MNL and SGN have low yields. FCO and MNL have weak home airlines. AS will make a success out of some of them.
I imagine Manila, Delhi, and Singapore would be good routes for Alaska-Hawaiian. Maybe Hong Kong. Then there’s Thailand and Vietnam.
Not for long. FCO will have a strong airline soon and btw AZ is now profitable, and anyway Rome is low yield. Milan is the real deal and better, also more populated than Rome.
@dz … Also , Milano has better food and wine .
They must see the ability to sell enough of these seats to PNW Alaska loyalists and corporate accounts. I highly doubt there will be much in the way of connecting traffic from elsewhere in the country given much better products out there to Tokyo and Seoul. No one is going to go out of their way to fly a U..S. carrier with these seats.
Those seats are not for you or me, but I do think there will be may Alaska loyalists who will be happy to take these.
I suspect this will force Delta to up its game in Asia and the Pacific. Relying on Korean out of Seoul and China Eastern out of Shanghai, the latter being a partnership that Delta basically has stopped promoting since the pandemic and increased China-US tensions, aren’t good enough. It’s astonishing that Delta doesn’t fly between Tokyo and New York, for example.
Delta, already struggling to make Tokyo and Taipei work, is on the defensive here. And not just from Seattle: look at how cheap it is to fly Delta between Honolulu and Tokyo versus competitors.
Oh boy…you’ve triggered the resident travel blog Delta troll…I’m sure he’ll be along shortly.
You know, it’s fine discussing DL’s challenges without bringing up and provoking Voldemort and making these comments section 10x worse.
That OMAAT comments section is an absolute shitstain, more in part because of you trollfeeders.
And…he showed up. Scary.
lol
DL does not need to up its game. It already provides an enviable leading product that will only get better as the ex-LATAM 359s are retrofitted and more 339s are based in SEA. DL is investing in SEA with a beautiful new D1 lounge, which will offer a far more premium experience than anything AS will on the ground or on its laughable 332s with business class seating that has long been uncompetitive.
DL’s unparalleled worldwide route network, in cooperation with its JV partners, will always temper any success AS hopes to achieve in SEA with its long-haul expansion.
@Tim Dunn, While I appreciate your perspectives, calling DL a premium carrier is a significant stretch – as is calling any US Carrier, premium.
My family and I regularly fly SQ and BA long haul. In fact, we have only flown these carriers over the past 10 years for long haul travel.
Incidentally, my wife had a long haul trip last week – due to family commitments, Delta was the only viable option. The D1 service and amenities (cabin crew, food quality, D1 seat) on all 4 legs were well below par vs what is offered on BA (Club Suites) and SQ – the only redeeming feature was the Missoni Kit, which was on par with BA’s “the White Company”, and SQ’s “Penhaligon”.
My wife did not even bother using the SkyCub in ATL, and opted to use the AMEX Centurion lounge.
Delta has an “unparalleled” worldwide route network?
United would like to have a word.
Getting rid of the 777s was a mistake. Hopefully the fact that a D1 lounge is coming soon means that DL is ready to fight though. I think SEA DL widebodies are a lot of 359s and 339s, right? So at least it’s actually premium and not a crap 763 that they are flooding TATL with
Is AS now going to sell the rest of Asia through partnership with JL/CX and potentially SX?
A lot of possibilities!
People, product is not king. If product and nonstop flights was the most important, then people wouldn’t bend over backwards to take bad connections and smaller planes for the sake of status. Also, look at Lufthansa. Their business and first products are ancient by today’s standards, and they won’t be fully modernized anytime soon.
HA’s A330 is just awful in economy. The seat pitch is awfully tight and I’m 5’10”. I’ve done a couple of SYD-HNL trips and they were just miserable. Never again. I can’t understand why AS would deploy the A330 on these routes from SEA.
Because they’re saving the 787s for flights to Europe. And they need to be painted.
Man, is this really going to complicate Oneworld pacific partnerships. You have HA and AS as the same company. HA has a strong codeshare partnership with JAL, in many ways feeling more like a JV. AS has a kind-of partnership with JAL, being in the same alliance as well as being award partners, but doesn’t have nearly the strength of a partnership that HA does. American has a trans-pacific JV with JAL, but competes with Hawaiian and is really only an award partner with AS. This is why they say alliances don’t mean anything anymore! It will be interesting to see if there is a shake-up of partnerships within the alliance. Perhaps HA, AS, JL, and AA all unify their partnerships into one overall transpacific JV? Only time will tell…
One small (meant facetiously) factor in Alaska’s choice of A330s is that they have many more of them. As the 787s come on line, I’d expect to see them take over the longer flights.