Alaska Airlines’ California expansion lands in Monterey
Next up in Alaska Airlines expansion to California is a new route Monterey, which will get nonstop flights to the carrier's Seattle hub.
Alaska will launch daily service between Seattle (SEA) and Monterey (MRY) on June 18, the airline said Wednesday. The flight will operate daily on an Embraer 175 jets with 76 seats. The carrier has served Monterey from San Diego since 2012.
The new route is the latest in Alaska's deepening of its network between the Pacific Northwest and California. Beginning this month and continuing through June, the carrier will add 11 new routes in the market. Among those are Boise (BOI)-Los Angeles (LAX); Portland, Oregon (PDX)-San Luis Obispo (SBP); and Redmond/Bend (RDM)-San Francisco (SFO).
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The growth comes as Alaska trims its network to the Midwest from California, particularly out of its San Diego (SAN) focus city.
"There are so many places within the West where we're really good," Alaska chief financial officer Brandon Pedersen said about the new West Coast routes in September. "We've got point-of-sale on both sides [of these West Coast markets], strong loyalty – that's a much higher profit potential use of the airplane."
In the first half of 2020, Alaska's capacity will be up more than 7% year-over-year between California and Idaho, Oregon and Washington, according to Cirium schedule data. At the same time, capacity between California and the Midwest will be down nearly 42%.
Alaska will be the first airline to fly nonstop between Seattle and Monterey since at least 2004, according to Cirium schedules.
Related: Why Alaska Airlines is returning to its routes in the West
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