Today Alaska Airlines announced the destinations it will serve from Paine Field, home of the Boeing Everett Factory just north of Seattle. Alaska Airlines is now the country’s fifth largest airline after its purchase of Virgin America last year. Lately both the airline and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport have seen a huge spike in growth. Read more about Virgin America’s last days here:
https://avgeekery.com/virgin-america-retires-redwood-callsign-operating-certificate/
SeaTac is reportedly having overcrowding and capacity problems since Delta made it a hub. The rapid growth of Alaska Airlines has added to the capacity issues.
Alaska is growing the larger Seattle market
Alaska has a strategic plan in place to expand service to the North Sound, which has a population of more than 1 million people. Access to routes out of Paine Field-Snohomish County Airport in Everett will save passengers north of Seattle about an hour of commute time to the airport.
KPAE is home to the Boeing Everett Factory where Boeing widebody planes are assembled. That means Avgeeks flying out of the airport can look forward to some great plane spotting, as well.
Alaska Airlines is going to fly 13 nonstop daily departures out of KPAE to eight cities when the service commences this fall, including:
— Las Vegas
— Los Angeles
— Orange County
— Phoenix
— Portland
— San Diego
— San Francisco
— San Jose
Because there are 13 flights, the most likely scenario is that most of them will be flown daily. A couple of routes could offer multiple daily flights, possibly even several daily flights to Portland.
The expectation is that the routes will be operated with Embraer 175s. Flight times are subject to government approval and will be announced later this year.
