Destinations

Alaska's route system spans more than 92 cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. During the 1980s Alaska Airlines operated a unique interchange of aircraft and aircrews to Texas with first, Braniff International and subsequently American Airlines, after the demise of Braniff in 1982. The airline operated charter flights to the Russian Far East starting in the late 1960s, and was known for the 1988 Friendship Flight to Provideniya that broke the old Soviet border. The airline began scheduled operations to the Russian Far East in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union, but suspended the service in 1998 following the 1998 Russian financial crisis. The airline flew MD-80 aircraft on these routes.

Alaska has historically been one of the largest carriers on the US west coast as well as to and within the state of Alaska, with strong presences in Seattle, Portland, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles Metro Area (serving all five LA-area and four Bay Area major airports). With the delivery of 737 Next-Generation aircraft starting in 1999, Alaska began launching more long-haul flights. In 2000, Alaska started service between Anchorage and Chicago. In 2001, the airline was granted slot exemptions by the Department of Transportation to operate a nonstop flight from Washington National Airport (DCA) to Seattle, which was halted after a few days due to the September 11, 2001 attacks. The service resumed the following year, with an additional flight from Washington National to Seattle added in 2004, as well as new non-stop service between Washington National and Los Angeles.

Other long-haul flights from Seattle were launched starting in 2001, including flights to Orlando (2002), Miami (2002), Newark (2002) , Boston (2003), and Dallas. In October 2007, Alaska Airlines began service to Hawaii and currently provides non-stop service to Honolulu, Lihue, Kahului, and Kona from Seattle and Kahului and Honolulu from Anchorage. Alaska recently launched new service from Seattle to Minneapolis – Saint Paul (2008), Kona, and Austin (2009). Upcoming service from Seattle to Houston begins on September 23, from Seattle to Atlanta begins on October 23,and from Oakland to both Kahului and Kona begin in the 2nd week of November.. These latter two non-stop additions, for which neither Oakland, Kona, or Kahului, are hubs/focus cities of Alaska, is a rarity in today's commercial airline industry where the tendency is for an airline to concentrate its flights around some sort of "hub and spoke" route system. In spite of the many economic difficulties that have pegged the industry since the turn of the century, Alaska Airlines has managed to grow its route system by an impressive rate of 40 percent over the course of this last decade.