How Alaska Air Group Is Building a Long-Haul Gateway in Seattle

Alaska Air Group has stated clearly its ambitions in the past year. The group is moving away from a domestic-first business model and is entering long-haul flying. First mission? Turn Seattle into its long haul operations gateway.

The strategy shift: Alaska is no longer thinking “regional airline”

The moment it all changed was when the Alaska Air Group took control of Hawaiian Airlines. Prior to then Alaska Airlines had been a domestic-centric operator with a strong focus on the US west coast. Yes it did operate flights stretching east in the continental US but it never entered the long haul operations arena.

Now the group is entering a new phase by launching its first long haul operations. Alaska didn’t simply inherit Hawaiian Airlines’ long haul flights and continue them. Low yield operations were ceased, with new transpacific flights commencing service with Seattle being the focus city.

Why Seattle is the primary long-haul gateway

Seattle is the fulcrum Alaska’s operations. It’s where the airline’s headquarters are based and also its largest base. It therefore made total sense for the airline to make this airport its first long haul hub.

In 2025 the Alaska Air Group launched new transpacific long haul operations from Seattle under operated using Hawaiian Airlines aircraft. In 2026, however, it will be operating the first ever long haul and wide body services from Seattle using its own aircraft.

Reliable Feeding Traffic

With an already strong infrastructure and domestic network at Seattle the airline can build on top of this to build its new long haul network. Long haul flights will benefit from the extensive Alaska Airlines network by feeding and being fed traffic. Travelers will have a seamless transit experience from domestic flights to Alaska Airlines new long haul destinations and vice versa.

The European Opportunity

Seattle is one of Delta’s focus cities, that is also Alaska Airlines’ biggest challenges. However, Delta primarily uses Seattle as a Pacific hub for flights to Asia. A limited number of flights operate direct to Europe, with Delta funneling traffic to eastern hubs to then transit onto its transatlantic services.

That’s where Alaska Airlines sees its opportunity and is taking action upon it. The idea is to serve direct flights from Seattle to Europe and cut out the time you would have to spend in another major east coast hub transiting. In other words Alaska will be leveraging the convenience factor.

Rome Fiumicino was the first long haul service announced to commence daily seasonal flights on April 28th 2026. Not at all accidentally a destination which had no prior direct service from Seattle. An announcement that triggered Delta to respond.

Alaska announced Seattle-Rome on June 3, 2025. Delta followed with its own Seattle-Rome announcement on June 24, 2025, and later filed schedule details around the June 29 timetable update.

Why Honolulu still matters for long-haul (especially Australia & New Zealand)

While Seattle will undoubtedly become the Alaska Air Group’s main long haul hub, Honolulu will still remain a strategic asset. The islands remain a prime domestic and international tourist destination. That in and of itself is a huge demand driver. The issue with relying solely on that is there are fluctuations due to the economy and currency exchange rates.

Therefore, the way Honolulu falls into the Alaska Air Group master plan is also changing. The airport is also changing into a gateway of sorts for some of the group’s flights.

Alaska Air Group is experimenting with operating flights to Australia and New Zealand from Honolulu and offering onwards transits to the US west coast. The first leg from Australia and New Zealand on Hawaiian Airlines aircraft, the second on Alaska Airlines metal.

However, Honolulu can also become the gateway for flights the Alaska Air Group might want to launch to destinations out of the Boeing 787’s range from Seattle deeper into Asia.

Two gateways, one plan: how SEA and HNL should split roles

Seattle will certainly be the main focus city for all new long haul services in the short term. Honolulu will focus on touristic traffic and flights from Australian and New Zealand.

However, if Alaska Airlines’ international expansion proves successful there is definitely space for long haul growth from Honolulu too.

The two hubs will tap into traffic from different areas and market segments working in unison and complementing each other.

Fleet and product: the limiting factors that decide what launches next

Alaska Airlines has a strong product on its domestic operations. It will have to prove to be capable of transferring that experience to its wide body planes and long haul operations.

Being seen on par with other major carriers in the travel experience will be a key component to potential success. So far it seems Alaska is taking the right steps in this regard. It has created a brand new business class hard product for its new Boeing 787s and has invested heavily in lounges, apps, fleet, and other ground assets.

What to watch in 2026: signals the long-haul plan is working

• Customer response and traffic figures for Alaska Airlines first European long haul services.
• Any frequency increase which can signal operations on track with expected results
• New destinations announced and the pace of the announcements.