Alaska Airlines’ Southern California Expansion Includes San Diego-Las Vegas Flights

Alaska airlines San Diego

An Alaska Airlines jet landing at San Diego International Airport.

Credit: Imago/Alamy Stock Photo

Alaska Airlines will open service between San Diego International Airport (SAN) and Las Vegas International Airport (LAS), joining a highly competitive route.

Alaska will operate the SAN-LAS route 4X-weekly from Oct. 1. The airline will compete on the route against four carriers: Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and Delta Air Lines. LAS will become the 39th market Alaska serves from SAN.

Also on Oct. 1, the airline plans to start 1X-daily service between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Tri-Cities Airport (PSC) in Pasco, Washington. On the same date, it will resume service between LAX and Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO) in Nevada, operating the route 2X-daily.

With the new routes and added flights on existing routes, Alaska will operate 25% more capacity out of LAX year-over-year in October. The airline said it will “offer the most daily flights to West Coast destinations of any airline from LAX.”

As of October, Alaska will offer 13X-daily flights between its Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) base and LAX. It will also fly 6X-daily between LAX and LAS, as well as 8X-daily between LAX and Portland, Oregon.

Neil Thwaites, Alaska’s regional vice president for California, said in a statement that the airline is “committed to growth in Southern California,” adding: “We will offer our largest schedule out of the region in recent years … This new schedule also solidifies our title as the airline serving the most nonstop destinations from San Diego with our new service to Las Vegas.”

Aaron Karp

Aaron Karp is a Contributing Editor to the Aviation Week Network.