Alaska Airlines adds 3 new Oregon routes, including competition to major United hub

Alaska Airlines is going big in Oregon this summer with three new routes — and additional flights on existing routes — from the Beaver State.

Beginning May 15, the Seattle-based Oneworld alliance carrier will connect Portland International Airport (PDX) to Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and Oregon's Eugene Airport (EUG), and Rogue Valley International Medford Airport (MFR) in Oregon to San Diego International Airport (SAN). The Houston and San Diego routes will operate daily, and the Eugene route twice daily.

Alaska will also add two additional flights for four daily services between Portland and Medford, and one additional flight for three daily between Portland and in-state Redmond Municipal Airport (RDM) on May 15.

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The airline claims that, with the new flights starting in May, it will surpass United Airlines to become the largest carrier in Medford with up to 11 daily departures to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Portland, San Diego, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).

Alaska is already the largest airline in Portland and Redmond, schedule data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows. It is third in Eugene after Southwest Airlines and United.

"Our new flights out of Portland, Eugene and Medford show our continued focus on connecting Oregon with the rest of the country," said Kirsten Amrine, vice president of network planning and revenue management at Alaska, in a statement. She described Portland as a "second home" for the airline.

The new routes come as Alaska rebuilds its hub in Portland. In December, executives outlined plans to coordinate schedules into four defined "flight banks," or when numerous flights arrive and depart at an airport in a narrow time window, for example within an hour of each other. This, they said, would enable more opportunities for passengers to connect via Portland — as well as lead to more flights and routes overall at PDX.

Earlier in January, Alaska announced a new nonstop between Portland and Alaska's Fairbanks International Airport (FAI) as part of its plan to expand its Portland hub.

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Alaska offered 16% fewer seats and 22% fewer flights in Portland in 2024 than in 2019, the last full year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cirium data shows. Systemwide, the airline only had 2% fewer seats and 7% fewer flights last year than before the pandemic.

The growth in Portland comes as Alaska begins the integration of Hawaiian Airlines after the two merged last September. That includes moving around some of each airline's planes to better meet travel demand. For example, the company is adding Hawaiian's Airbus A330-200 on flights between Seattle and Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) this summer. Alaska will also launch its first intercontinental nonstop from Seattle to Tokyo's Narita International Airport (NRT) in May, also using with Hawaiian A330s.

Alaska will compete with United on the Portland-Houston route, and Allegiant Air on Medford-San Diego, Cirium schedules show.

See the full details of Alaska's new Oregon routes below:

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• Medford-San Diego: Daily from May 15 on an Embraer E175
• Portland-Eugene: Twice daily from May 15 on Embraer E175s
• Portland-Houston Bush: Daily from May 15 on a Boeing 737

News of Alaska's beefing up of its Oregon schedule comes about a week after the carrier announced plans for three new routes from the state of Alaska, including one to the Michigan hub of rival Delta Air Lines.

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