Alaska Airlines Adds San Diego-Washington Dulles Service

Credit: Joe Pries

Alaska Airlines is buttressing its presence in San Diego (SAN), launching new transcontinental flights from the southern California city to Washington Dulles (IAD).

The SAN-IAD service is one of three new San Diego routes Seattle (SEA)-based Alaska has unveiled. Flights between SAN and IAD commence June 15. The route will be operated daily with a Boeing 737-9.

Also from June 15, the oneworld carrier will add Embraer E175 service between San Diego and Eugene (EUG) in Oregon. The SAN-EUG route will be operated daily.

From Oct. 5, Alaska will launch daily 737-9 transcontinental service between SAN and Tampa (TPA) in Florida.

The new SAN routes will bring to 35 the number of destinations Alaska serves from the airport. “This includes flights to the northeast [US], northwest [US], throughout California, Mexico, Florida and to all four major islands in Hawaii,” the airline said in a statement.

“Our community benefits from the addition of flights to the east coast and Pacific northwest,” SAN CEO Kimberly Becker said.

Since acquiring San Francisco (SFO)-based Virgin America in April 2016, Alaska has been steadily building its California presence. “In California, Alaska operates over 330 peak day flights, including from our hubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles (LAX), as well as other cities across the state including our key focus cities of San Diego and San Jose (SJC),” Alaska said.

Aaron Karp

Aaron Karp is a Contributing Editor to the Aviation Week Network.