Alaska Airlines is spreading its wings with a new longest flight in the Lower 48.
The Seattle-based carrier unveiled a South Florida expansion on Thursday, with daily nonstop flights taking off to Miami on June 16, 2022.
Alaska will serve Miami from its Seattle hub, and it will continue to serve nearby Fort Lauderdale with two daily flights to Seattle, as well as winter seasonal service to Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon.
For Alaska, adding service to Miami is notable for multiple reasons.
For one, the city has long been a fortress hub for American Airlines, the carrier’s new domestic Oneworld-alliance partner. Elites of both carriers can enjoy reciprocal perks on the new flights, including upgrades, preferred seats and expanded baggage allowance.
Alaska’s service will join American’s existing Miami to Seattle route, though flyers will may prefer Alaska’s schedule with an early morning eastbound departure and a return flight in the late afternoon. American’s once-daily Seattle flight departs Miami in the afternoon and returns to the city as a red-eye.
Additionally, at 2,744 miles and about six hours, the new Miami route will be Alaska’s longest in the Lower 48. The airline will deploy a 178-seat Boeing 737-900 on the route, featuring 16 first-class recliners and 162 coach seats.
Miami also marks the airline’s 100th destination from Seattle. Interestingly, the city isn’t technically “new” for the airline — Alaska last flew there in July 2012, according to Cirium timetables.
Alaska is the latest domestic carrier to land (or expand) at the Miami Airport.
During the pandemic, both Southwest and JetBlue made headlines for starting service to Miami, a city they’ve long avoided in favor of nearby Fort Lauderdale due to its historically lower operating costs.
Spirit Airlines is on its way to becoming Miami’s second-largest carrier by destinations served, with a whopping 31 routes that first started in early October and will ramp into early 2022.
One of Spirit’s main competitors, Frontier Airlines added Miami to its route map in 2014 and has since classified the city as one of its hubs. Frontier opened a new crew base there last year and is adding nine new routes there in November alone.
If that wasn’t enough, Delta is also planning a big Miami expansion.
In July 2020, the Atlanta-based carrier doubled down on its proposed pan-American partnership with LATAM that includes a new “gateway hub” in Miami. Delta unveiled plans to add at least 20 new U.S. domestic departures under its proposed joint venture with LATAM, though the timeline remains unclear.
Delta took a 20% stake in LATAM in September 2019, wooing the carrier away from the Oneworld alliance and its former partner, American Airlines.
