Alaska unveils a brand new longest route connecting New York Metropolis with Anchorage

Alaska Airways is betting that you simply will not thoughts spending practically eight hours holed up in a home jet on its new longest route.

The Seattle-based service introduced on Friday brand-new service between New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) and Ted Stevens Anchorage Worldwide Airport (ANC) in Anchorage, Alaska.

New each day seasonal service will start on June 13, 2024, on board certainly one of Alaska’s new Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets. This route will function by Aug. 19.

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Moreover, Alaska will launch once-weekly flights on Saturdays between San Diego and Anchorage. This route will likely be operated by the usual model of the Boeing 737.

At 3,386 miles, Alaska’s New York-to-Anchorage flight will grow to be the longest within the service’s community. The airline is obstructing it for seven hours and 45 minutes within the westbound course and 7 hours and 5 minutes within the eastbound course.

You will discover the total schedule on the backside of this publish, however the timetable is roughly what you’d anticipate for an eight-hour home flight. It departs within the morning from New York and arrives within the midafternoon in Alaska. It returns to New York as a red-eye, leaving at 8 p.m. — a bit early to start out falling asleep — and touchdown the following morning at 7:05 a.m.

Shifting loyalties? Alaska Airways targets Delta with profitable standing match supply

Earlier than asserting this new flight, Alaska’s three longest flights had been as follows, based mostly on Cirium schedules:

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• Chicago to Anchorage: 2,846 miles
• Honolulu to Anchorage: 2,777 miles
• Miami to Seattle: 2,724 miles

As you possibly can see, Alaska’s new route will likely be over 500 miles longer than the next-longest route. It will be attention-grabbing to see if the airline modifies its inflight service to extra intently resemble a long-haul flight. (In spite of everything, New York to London — a correct long-haul route — is simply 65 miles longer.)

Notice that Alaska is about to obtain the Boeing 737 MAX 8 within the coming months. The service has 15 of those jets on order, and the cabin configuration hasn’t been unveiled but.

Stretch your legs: The world’s longest nonstop flights, up to date

Whereas this announcement is perhaps splashy for Alaska, the service will go up in opposition to some severe competitors on the opposite facet of New York Metropolis. That is as a result of United Airways already presents each day summer season seasonal service between Newark and Anchorage.

Apparently, United additionally deploys a Boeing 737 MAX 8 on the route (it used to function a lie-flat-equipped Boeing 757 on this flight), however the service’s westbound schedule shouldn’t be fairly the identical as Alaska’s. United’s Newark-to-Anchorage service departs at round 3:15 p.m. within the afternoon and lands in Alaska at 6:58 p.m. It returns as a red-eye flight, additionally departing at 8 p.m.

Two years in the past, Delta Air Strains additionally flew between New York and Anchorage, however that service from the coronavirus pandemic period hasn’t returned since. As such, it will be attention-grabbing to see how Alaska fares with this new route.

Factors of View: Which bank card do you have to use for Alaska Airways flights?

“Alaskans love nonstop flights to and from the state. We like having nice journey choices and including locations reminiscent of New York and San Diego undoubtedly match the invoice,” Marilyn Romano, Alaska’s regional vp, stated in an announcement.

With these two new routes, Alaska will supply a complete of 14 nonstop locations to and from Anchorage in the summertime, together with locales within the Decrease 48 and Hawaii. Particular locations embody Chicago; Denver; Honolulu; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; New York; Phoenix; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake Metropolis; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; and Everett, Washington.