Alaska Airlines Expands Paine Field Map, Adds 10th Nonstop Route

Alaska Airlines continues to expand its map from Paine Field north of Seattle, adding new intra-state service to Spokane this fall.

The Seattle-based carrier will add a daily flight between Paine Field (PAE) in Everett, Washington, to Spokane (GEG) starting Nov. 4, it said Wednesday. The company will fly a 76-seat Embraer 175 on the new route.

"When it comes to flights at Paine Field, our guests have been eager for one city to be added above all others right now – they said make it Spokane," David Besse, manager of network planning at Alaska, said in a statement. "We believe this route will be very popular, easily connecting... two dynamic regions of the state."

Related: Check Out The New Paine Field Airport Passenger Terminal

Spokane joins Palm Springs (PSP) as new destinations from Paine Field this November. Commercial airline service at the airport, which is home to many of Boeing's wide-body aircraft assembly lines, resumed in March.

With the addition of Spokane and Palm Springs, Alaska Airlines will now offer nonstop flights on 10 routes from Paine Field. The carrier's other destinations from the airport are: Las Vegas (LAS); Los Angeles (LAX); Orange County, California (SNA); Phoenix (PHX); Portland, Oregon (PDX); San Diego (SAN); San Francisco SFO); and San Jose, California.

Alaska's new service to eastern Washington fits with the network strategy outlined by CEO Brad Tilden in July. During a quarterly earnings call, he told analysts that Alaska would focus 2020 capacity growth on "doing everything we need to do to sort of defend and grow markets out of the state of Washington."

As part of its defensive push in the Pacific Northwest, the airline is retaining 10 De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 turboprops previously slated for retirement by the end of next year.

Related: Alaska Keeps Turboprops as Focus Shifts to Pacific Northwest

Alaska is capped at 18 daily flights from the airport. The airline will reduce its schedule to Los Angeles (LAX) to two daily flights from three to add the new Spokane service, its website shows.

United Airlines also serves Paine Field with six daily flights to Denver (DEN) and San Francisco (SFO).

Alaska is using Paine Field to expand its footprint in its home Seattle market. In December, the airline's chief commercial officer Andrew Harrison said that the 18 flights from the airport were equivalent to a 6% increase at Seattle-Tacoma (SEA) "without any of the congestion and huge convenience for our guests."

Alaska is headquartered in Seattle and operates its largest hub there.