Alaska Airlines is growing again, this time with focus on San Diego, Portland, and Hawaii.

Alaska Airlines Expands With 13 New Routes, Two New Cities, And More Hawaii Flights

Alaska Airlines has announced 13 new routes set to begin in 2026, including service to two new destinations, Tulsa, Oklahoma and Arcata-Eureka, California. The additions strengthen its network on the U.S. West Coast and add more links to Hawaii, with particular focus on San Diego and Portland.

New Alaska Airlines 2026 Routes

The new routes begin rolling out in March 2026 and continue through next summer. San Diego and Portland are the biggest winners, with five and four new routes, respectively.

From San Diego (SAN), Alaska will add daily service to:

• Tulsa (TUL)
• Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)
• Raleigh-Durham (RDU)
• Oakland (OAK
• Santa Barbara (SBA)

The carrier says this represents a 35% increase in San Diego capacity next spring compared to 2025, bolstering the city’s hub status.

Portland (PDX) sees new flights to:

• Baltimore (BWI)
• Idaho Falls (IDA)
• Philadelphia (PHL)
• St. Louis (STL)

Portland will also see a second flight to Newark, increased service Lihue, Kauai (LIH), and a third daily flight to Santa Rosa-Sonoma.

Seattle gains new service to both Tulsa and Arcata-Eureka. On the leisure side, a new Honolulu–Burbank nonstop will launch next May, along with a new Ontario–Santa Rosa-Sonoma connection in California wine country.

Los Angeles-Kahului, Maui (OGG) goes to two daily nonstops with an additional seasonal flight, and San Francisco-Kona (KOA) and San Francisco-Lihue (LIH) will increase in June 2026 to daily nonstops.

In total, Alaska says it will serve 142 destinations by 2026, the most in company history.

Here’s a summary of the new routes:

 Conservative Growth Focuses On West Coast Strength

The San Diego growth is especially interesting. Alaska already commands a strong position up and down the West Coast, but its San Diego expansion works to further make San Diego an alternative to Los Angeles as a southern California base. With a mix of East Coast, Hawaii, and regional routes, Alaska is focusing not just on local traffic in SAN, but pushing connecting traffic as well, the biggest indicator of a hub. For example, it says its new flights from Santa Barbara – San Diego service are timed for onward connections from SAN to East Coast and Hawaiian destinations.

For Portland, the new routes are less about breaking new ground and more about restoring breadth. The city’s connectivity slipped a bit during the pandemic years, and these additions, especially to Philadelphia and St. Louis, suggest a return to form as Alaska rebuilds its midcontinent reach.

The Hawaii expansion is consistent with Alaska’s long-running strategy: own the West Coast-to-Islands market. Adding Burbank–Honolulu is a smart move given pent-up demand and the convenience of bypassing LAX, a route that was last served by Aloha Airlines (also by a 737) 20 years ago.

Overall, this announcement is conservative, but logical: Alaska is filling gaps in the network, deepening existing markets, and preparing for a future in which its pending merger with Hawaiian Airlines could reshape the West Coast landscape even further.

Alaska remains quite weak on the East Coast, but I’m hoping that one day it will be Alaska and JetBlue and that merge, not JetBlue and United.

CONCLUSION

Alaska’s latest expansion shows a disciplined approach to growth. The routes make sense geographically and commercially, and the emphasis on San Diego and Portland signals where the airline sees opportunity. For frequent Alaska flyers in Southern California like me, the schedule next spring brings more nonstop options and fewer connections through Seattle.

image: Alaska Airlines