Alaska Airlines announces 8 destination cities for Paine Field service, set to start in fall 2018

Alaska Airlines selects destinations for new service from Paine Field. (PRNewsfoto/Alaska Airlines)

Alaska Airlines announced Tuesday that its new daily nonstop service from Paine Field in Everett starting this fall will include 13 daily nonstop departures to eight Western U.S. cities.

Alaska’s service will connect Paine Field to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose. Flight frequencies for each destination, along with departure and arrival times, will be announced later in 2018, subject to government approval, the announcement said.

“This is both a historic occasion and a great honor for Alaska Airlines,” said Andrew Harrison, Alaska Airlines’ chief commercial officer. “We are excited to be able to continue our commitment to the State of Washington and the Pacific Northwest. We’re proud to become the anchor tenant of the new terminal at Paine Field. With so many new possibilities for business and leisure travel, we believe this will bring increased opportunities to our communities.”

Artists renderings of the new Paine Field passenger terminal, due to begin serving customers next fall. (Courtesy Propeller Aviation)

Flights from Paine Field will offer three classes of service: first class, premium class and main cabin, Alaska Airlines said.

Propeller Airports and Snohomish County are currently building the new terminal at Paine Field. It’s set to open in fall 2018.

  1. We are so excited to hear this news. It is a long way for us to get to SeaTac from our home (Skagit County). Struggling with Seattle traffic, etc. we are looking forward for this new service out of Paine Field!! Thank you!✈️

  2. This IS great news. My husband travels frequently to California and to Phoenix. Driving through Seattle, whether departing or coming home, is always horrid. YAY!!!

  3. With Alaska’s foot in the door, will they eventually move all of their Seatac flights to Paine field? A new hub?

        1. I do not know this for sure but before offering the answer I did consider how costly it might be to move all their infrastructure to Paine as opposed to the benefits. Hard to see benefits outweighing costs.

          I also did some speculation on the benefits to Alaska Air of bringing passengers to SeaTac vs Paine Field. Seems to me that more of their passengers would want to connect to other flights going to places Alaska does not serve than would like to connect with the Mukilteo Ferry.

          Thinking about all that makes and airline work, employees, passengers, competition, etc, they would have a hard time adding to their profits with such a move. But that too is only my guess. Does anyone know of some facts that would produce a business plan that would make sense to move all their operations to Paine?

    1. Thanks Ron. Sorry to be logical and factual on issues. It would be nice on some of these comment sessions that folks would discuss facts and ideas and not just each other or some biased position. These sessions could actually add to the communities understanding of issues and move things forward.

      1. Mr. Haug, Please remember that one persons “biased position”, is another persons “truth”. Personally, I think keeping the communication open and having differing opinions, as MEN has tried to do, serves the community well.

        1. Ms Mae, you are absolutely correct. I reacted too quickly with my above remark. I too have biased position on a number of issues. I try to do the fact finding first and then create my position based on the facts and reasonable assumptions. School funding for example has over the years eroded to local levys paying for a big chuck of teacher salaries. While the state will pay more for teacher salaries, they will not fund the full amount we pay in Edmonds. Local levys will make up the difference. The state will also not pay for things like sports and music programs. My bias is we should have these programs and if the state will not fund them we must do that locally. These are the truths upon which I base my biased position.

    1. You are welcome. I still hope to provide you the financial data for the upcoming school levy to show you why the levy is needed to maintain the level of teaching we have today.

  4. Has anyone any official information of the projected “flight path” of these Alaska Airlines flights in/out of Paine Field? It is my understanding that there is a chance they could possibly be using airspace over Edmonds. My husband sits on an HOA board of owners of hangers at Paine Field for over 30 years, and has been a commercial pilot over 35 years. The Paine Field HOA have not received any official information on the flight paths. This would be good to know; if Alaska Airlines continues to fly more flights out of Paine, it could end up being a “be careful what you wish for” situation.

    1. Great question. Here is a report that was generated to analyze all sorts of issues including noise. https://snohomishcountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/35391
      Noise is discussed starting on pg 44 and again on pg 72. The assumptions in this study however were based on the use of turbo prop plans not the jets that are now planned.

      One of the things that could reduce noise for Edmonds is to develop a plan like John Wayne in Orange County. Basically the planes climb rapidly, throttle back and glide until they are away from homes and then throttle up. This process reduces noise over neighborhoods. At Paine that could help with noise taking off to the north or south.

      Alaska is a home town airline and it would be nice if our elected officials were to make a friendly call upon the airline and try to enlist their help in lobbying for noise abatement plans and flight path plans that have minimum impact on residential areas. Alaska could lead the way on helping reduce noise.

      1. Thanks Mr. Haug, for this information. We have a home in Newport Beach, CA, where the OC jets are overhead to the North; in certain wind conditions it seems as if they are directly overhead. My husband has flown out of OC thousands of times, and said it is the shortest runway and that presents lots of problems. We too love AK Airlines, I did their Interior Design in major airports for 20+, and lived in Alaska for over 25 years. The “noise” is going to be, what it is going to be. Not even the multi-million dollar property owners in Newport Beach, CA could stop the progress of the OC Airport.
        BTW, I always enjoy reading your comments, as they obviously are informed and come from a place of deep caring.

        1. Thanks Ms Mae. I am a dreamer, no not that dreamer group. My folks were born here too but with immigration in our distant history. Blogs like this can serve a number of useful purposes. Besides all the nice comments about birds and whales and stuff like that this blog can serve as a way to get all of our creative thinking caps working on common issues.

          I dream of a day when we the citizens of Edmonds work on issues with a common purpose to “solve” problems not just describe the problem. If you go back to the Strategic Action Plan we did a few year ago you will see what was put together by more than 2500 people from all around town with all sorts of interests and a set of actions were crafted to make our community better.

          Take a look and see what we said we wanted to do together. The ideas and concepts in the SAP can serve as a road map for us all.

          https://www.edmondswa.gov/images/COE/Government/Departments/Economic_Development/Strategic_plan/2013_04_03_ApprovedStrategic_Action_Plan_April_2_2013_copy.pdf

          My dream is that we work together on all the items in the plan but surely we should work on the elements that gathered the most support from our citizens.

          Thanks again for your comments, together we can be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

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