Alaska Airlines and oneworld Flex Their New West Coast Might

Alaska Airlines and oneworld airlines are preparing to show off their newfound strength in the Western United States in summer 2022. With more nonstop planned and the recovery of the airline industry in full swing, Alaska Airlines’ extensive connecting network and loyalty base is helping power some new and returning flights to Europe.

Alaska Airlines joined the oneworld alliance in March, and it is preparing to flex its network and strength to support more flying from its partners to Europe from the West Coast. Photo: Alaska Airlines

A big oneworld summer from the West Coast

Next summer, oneworld airlines have plenty of routes planned. American Airlines will fly two routes from the West Coast:

• Los Angeles (LAX) to London (LHR) [twice daily]
• Seattle (SEA) to London (LHR) [daily]

British Airways will fly six routes:

• Los Angeles (LAX) to London (LHR) [twice daily]
• San Diego (SAN) to London (LHR) [daily]
• San Francisco (SFO) to London (LHR) [twice daily]
• San Jose (SJC) to London (LHR) [five weekly]
• Seattle (SEA) to London (LHR) [twice daily]
• Portland (PDX) to London (LHR) [five weekly]

Finnair will fly three routes:

• Los Angeles (LAX) to Helsinki (HEL) [three weekly]
• Los Angeles (LAX) to Stockholm (ARN) [four weekly]
• Seattle (SEA) to Helsinki (HEL) [three weekly]

Lastly, Iberia will also fly three routes:

• Los Angeles (LAX) to Barcelona (BCN) [four weekly]
• Los Angeles (LAX) to Madrid (MAD) [five weekly]
• San Francisco (SFO) to Barcelona (BCN) [four weekly]

The planned oneworld flights from the West Coast to Europe in summer 2022. Rendering created at Great Circle Mapper

Altogether, these airlines will offer over 100 nonstop flights every week between the West Coast of the United States and Europe. Most of these routes are to key hubs like London and Helsinki from which customers can connect onwards to popular interior points like Paris or Frankfurt and leisure destinations like Athens or Dubrovnik on a single itinerary.

Rob Gurney, oneworld CEO, stated the following on the busy schedule:

“Since joining oneworld in March, Alaska Airlines has positioned oneworld as the leading alliance on the West Coast. With the new oneworld member airline flights to Europe and extensive connections at Alaska’s hubs, the possibilities are endless for customers planning that long-awaited trip to Europe.”

Alaska’s strong network will mean new connections

Alaska Airlines joined the oneworld alliance on March 31, 2020. During the first summer since becoming a full member, the benefits in terms of incremental connections and passenger feed to open new routes have been muted given the slow lifting of travel restrictions. Next summer will be the first full summer that is expected to offer relatively open travel between the United States and Europe.

Alaska’s Seattle hub offers the most connecting opportunities. Photo: Jay Singh | Simple Flying

Alaska Airlines is already helping propel new connections thanks to its robust network. American Airlines first announced plans to add a daily Seattle to London flight to complement British Airways’ operations in February 2020. Seattle to Helsinki is one of the most recent additions, with Finnair looking to tap into the big Alaska customer base in Seattle and target connections. British Airways had announced Portland to London pre-crisis, and it is now finally hoping to start it, certainly with the added strength from Alaska in mind.

Alaska joining the oneworld alliance will also help bolster many of these other services. Every airport that oneworld carriers will be flying into is one where Alaska has a sizable or growing presence. Coupled with the steady addition of codeshares between Alaska and these airlines, this will mean more ways to travel to destinations worldwide.

American has some big plans for Seattle as travel demand restores and aircraft deliveries resume. Photo: Getty Images

Alaska will especially help open new connections in the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, and Hawaii that were previously nonexistent or else limited. To help support the growth of oneworld partners, Alaska is also making schedule changes and growing depth to help facilitate more connections.

Expect more oneworld growth

It would not be surprising to see more oneworld growth on the West Coast. Alaska Airlines does not have any widebody aircraft, nor is it interested in acquiring them, meaning it relies on its partners to conduct long-haul operations. However, there is a bit of a learning curve on how many incremental seats airlines are filling with connections.

Alaska still has some work to do on growing the scale and size of its hubs in places like San Francisco. While some of these cities are large originating markets, adding capacity beyond what airlines are already flying could be a recipe for losses, given that there is already fierce competition for travelers in these markets. As Alaska grows, the connections themselves may warrant the need for added daily flying or an expansion of services from a few weekly flights to daily or more.

Alaska will keep working on providing value for its partners in the oneworld alliance. Photo: Getty Images

Note that these are just transatlantic flights to Europe and do not include flying from Qatar Airways, which has flights scheduled from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle to Doha. Transpacific travel remains down, but there are already contenders for airlines to add new nonstop service or return service to the West Coast with new connections from Alaska in mind. This could include the likes of Qantas and JAL, which have historically had a strong West Coast presence and have shown they are willing to add more flights where partners can help sustain them.

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