Alaska Airlines has announced and put on sale its next destination in Florida: Miami. Starting in June, the carrier will fly once-daily from Seattle. It'll target point-to-point passengers, summer cruise demand, and those transiting Miami across Latin America with American Airlines, a fellow member of oneworld. Alaska last served Miami in 2012.

Alaska Boeing 737
One reason for Alaska beginning Miami is to flow passengers over the hub to American's international services. Booking data shows that, in 2019, American had about 50,000 round-trip passengers from Seattle transit over Miami. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

What's happening?

Miami is to welcome back Alaska Airlines after an absence of ten years. Starting on June 16th, Alaska will operate a once-daily service from its main hub in Seattle. It'll have the following schedule, with all times local.

  • AS305: Seattle to Miami, 07:15-16:15; a block time of six hours
  • AS728: Miami to Seattle, 17:40-21:10; a block time of six and a half hours

Miami to Seattle is 2,724 miles (4,384km) and is the longest non-stop route in the continental US, analyzing OAG schedules shows. It beats Fort Lauderdale to Seattle by a mere seven miles (11km). Miami will use the B737-900ER. These have 178 seats, spread across 16 in first class seats (41"), 24 in premium economy (35"), and 138 in regular economy (31"-32").

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990(ER) N472AS
The B737-900 (ER and non-ER) is Alaska Airlines' main aircraft. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

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Back after almost exactly ten years

Alaska Airlines last served Miami between December 2004 and July 2012, OAG shows. From the same month that it ended Miami, it launched Fort Lauderdale for its South Florida operations. It has been at Fort Lauderdale ever since.

Seattle was the only route from Fort Lauderdale until Los Angeles and San Francisco joined in April 2018, followed by Portland (Oregon) in November 2020. Alaska will continue to serve Fort Lauderdale alongside Miami, the same for multiple airlines new carriers to Miami, including Spirit, JetBlue, and Southwest.

American A321
American Airlines still has some work to do before it gets back to full profitability. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

Miami to Seattle

In the current year, Miami-Seattle has 122,303 round-trip seats, 90% of what it had in 2019. You'll see from the following figure that the market has developed only marginally since 2004. Why? Because as Alaska exited in 2012, American entered. The temporary growth in capacity (in 2012-2014) was because of higher-density B757-200s being used versus the B737-800 that Alaska deployed.

The contrast with Fort Lauderdale is clear to see, with 2021 seats for sale up by 16% over 2019. The reason: the entry of JetBlue in 2020. While JetBlue has said it'll cut most of its pandemic-driven network, it'll be interesting to see if Fort Lauderdale-Seattle remains, given the South Florida airport is the carrier's third-largest airport.

Miami and Fort Lauderdale to Seattle_ non-stop seats
In 2021, Seattle has 339,000 non-stop seats to Miami/Fort Lauderdale, the most ever. Source of data: OAG.

From June next year, both Alaska and American will serve the route non-stop. American will leave Seattle at 23:03 against Alaska's 07:15. Going to Seattle, they'll depart just ten minutes apart: American at 17:30, Alaska at 17:40.

What do you make of this development? Share your thoughts in the comments.