Alaska Airlines, until now an all 737 airline, is jumping into long-haul routes from Seattle using planes and crews from Hawaiian Airlines, recently merged with Alaska but still flying under its own name.
Last week’s inaugural flight from Seattle to Tokyo using Hawaiian’s A330s was just the first step, with service to Incheon, Korea starting in September. According to Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci, Alaska will also start service next year to an unspecified European destination, using that fleet, although perhaps by then under its own name.
While Hawaiian has already flown to Tokyo and Seoul from Hawaii, the Seattle service is new, and neither airline has flown to Europe. Alaska believes that the A330 fleet was underused on flights from Hawaii to a number of U.S. cities, and will likely replace that service with 737s to free the A330s for the new routes.
