Alaska Airlines was founded in 1932 in Anchorage, Alaska. Today, the airline has expanded its presence significantly, creating a network that crosses oceans and serves five countries. Though no longer headquartered in Alaska, the airline has a base in Anchorage and has a significant presence in the state.
Based in Seattle, Washington, Alaska Airlines’ operations are focused heavily on the West Coast of the US. California, the most populated state in the country, is crucial to Alaska’s operations. The airline serves 16 California airports and has nearly 10,000 departures scheduled this month, representing nearly 25% of its total operations.
The beginning of operations in California
Alaska began operating outside of its home sate in 1951, when it was authorized to fly from Anchorage and Fairbanks to Seattle and Portland. In the 1960s, the airline became the first carrier to operate the Lockheed Hercules, which it used to fly workers to oil rigs in Alaska and eventually to Ecuador.
In 1979, the US skies were deregulated, and Alaska began to expand its network. That same year, it launched its first route to California, from Portland to San Francisco. Within five years, the Alaska was already flying to Southern California, Oakland, and San Jose.
As mentioned above, today, Alaska's network in California spans 16 airports and nearly 10,000 flights this month. The airline’s strongest California presence is in Los Angeles, with San Francisco not far behind.
Crew domiciles
Alaska Airlines has five crew domiciles, two of which are located in California. The list is below:
- Seattle, Washington
- Anchorage, Alaska
- Portland, Oregon
- San Francisco, California
- Los Angeles, California
According to a press release from September, Alaska currently employs 3,400 pilots. Following the approval of the merger with Hawaiian Airlines, the pilots workforce will total more than 4,500 pilots. Horizon Air, Alaska’s regional operator has more than 700 pilots.
There are five flight attendant bases, four of which are also pilot domiciles. The difference between pilot and flight attendant bases is that there is no flight attendant base in San Francisco. Instead, the fifth domicile is in San Diego.
Operations in Los Angeles
In November, Los Angeles is the busiest California airport for Alaska. According to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, there are 2,035 departures scheduled from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Nearly 1.2 million seats are available departing California this month, and 264,912 are from LAX.
Five years ago, LAX was not Alaska’s busiest airport in California. In November 2019, though LAX had more departures than in 2024, San Francisco was busier. Data shows that November 2024’s operations at LAX are down 8.5% by number of flights and 19.8% by seats.
In 2019, the airline had 330,385 seats available and had several transcontinental flights that are no longer served. In 2019, Alaska flew from Los Angeles to:
- Philadelphia
- New York (JFK)
- Boston
- Baltimore
A few other routes that were cut include Salt Lake City and Dallas Love Field.
Although some routes were cut, several routes were added. Data shows there are 12 routes the airline operates today that were not operated five years ago:
- Boise
- Cancun
- Reno
- Eugene
- Medford
- Spokane
- Guatemala City
- Redmond/Bend
- Pasco
- Belize City
- Nassau
- La Pax
One interesting thing to note is that flights to three of Alaska’s crew bases are down over 2019. Flights to Seattle are down 33.9%, 15.5% to Portland, and 27.6% to San Francisco.
San Francisco
Five years ago, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) was Alaska's most important airport in California. It is still crucial to the airline’s operations, but this month has 11 fewer flights than Los Angeles. By number of seats, San Francisco has about 5,000 fewer than LAX, with 259,862.
In 2019, Alaska scheduled 2,444 flights in November, a difference of 17.2% by number of flights and 21.7% by number of seats. In the last five years, several longer routes from SFO were cut:
- Philadelphia
- Baltimore
- Nashville
- Raleigh
- New Orleans
- Kansas City
- Kona
- Salt Lake City
- Dallas
- Albuquerque
Though some routes were cut, Alaska has added nine routes from San Francisco since 2019. They include:
- Burbank
- Phoenix
- Boise
- Spokane
- Redmond/Bend
- Cancun
- Tampa
- Mazatlan
- Ixtapa
Like with Los Angeles, Alaska’s flights to other domiciles are down. Data shows that flights to Seattle are down 42% over 2019 and Portland is down 23.3%
San Diego
Of the most important airports in California for Alaska, San Diego has experienced the most growth. Since 2019, Alaska’s presence has grown by 30.4% by number of flights and its seat offering has increased 32.7%. According to a report from Cranky Flier, Alaska’s VP of Network and Alliances, Brett Catlin, said that operating costs have risen and are expected to rise significantly in the coming years.
San Diego is an airport where the airline still has the opportunity to expand. Since November 2019, nine routes have been launched from San Diego International Airport (SAN). Several of the new routes were previously served from LAX but are now served from SAN. The list of the new routes is as follows:
- Tampa
- San Luis Obispo
- Redmond/Bend
- Las Vegas
- New York (JFK)
- Washington (Dulles)
- Fort Lauderdale
- Eugene
- Atlanta
Since 2019, Alaska increased its flights to Santa Rosa by 163.3%, operating three flights on several days throughout this month. Boise and Honolulu both had a 100% increase, with Honolulu’s seat capacity growing by 118.7% due to equipment changes. Several other routes had significant increases, such as Monterey, Austin, Orlando, Kona, Portland, Fresno, and San Francisco.
