“These are the cities people are most likely travelling down to Sea-Tac to fly to,” said Harrison. “There are about a million people in Western Washington for which it will make more sense to fly out of Paine Field.”
For today’s press event we sat and chatted in an Alaska Air 737 but the planes that will initially fly out of Everett will be Embraer 175s. They seat 76 people and have first class, premium class and main cabin seating. Harrison says if the Everett routes show high demand they could replace the Embraer with Boeing 737s that would seat up to 178 passengers.
Horizon Air, a subsidiary of Alaska Air will actually be the airline operating out of Everett. “Horizon Air is used to flying in and out of communities all over the west and they are going to be a great partner in this community,” Harrison said. For those looking to fly from Everett to Hawaii or the east coast the first stop would likely be to Portland and then on to those destinations.
As far as cost for passengers flying out of Everett instead of Seattle the values offered are expected to be similar according to Harrison. He added that if demand is heavy and larger 737s replace the smaller Embraer aircraft that will help prices stay as low in Everett as they are in Seattle.
In addition to Alaska flying out of Everett to Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Orange County, California; Phoenix; Portland; San Diego; San Francisco; and San Jose, California United Airlines has announced service from Everett to San Francisco and Denver. Construction of the terminal is on track and flights are expected to begin this fall.
We’ll get more information later this morning at the formal reveal at Paine Field but here’s a preliminary blog post that came out from Alaska Airlines at 5:00 AM regarding flights from Everett’s Paine Field this fall.Alaska will connect Paine Field to eight destinations along the West Coast with 13 daily nonstop departures starting in fall 2018, subject to government approval.
The all-jet service from Paine Field will fly to Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Orange County, California; Phoenix; Portland; San Diego; San Francisco; and San Jose, California. The number of flights for each destination along with departure and arrival times will be announced later in 2018, subject to government approval.
With Alaska’s new service from Paine Field, those looking to catch a flight north of Seattle and all around the North Sound (home to more than 1 million people) will have a new travel option closer to home. That’ll mean less driving to go farther south, saving time and fuel.
“Alaska aims to be the airline the West Coast loves to fly,” said John Kirby, Alaska’s vice president of capacity planning. “We’ve put together some great places to go to from Paine Field that we believe will make a lot of people very happy. It’ll be much easier for our guests in the North Sound to catch a flight business or pleasure, whether it’s for a fun weekend in Las Vegas, a work trip to L.A. or visiting family in the Bay Area.”
More to come later this morning after the official press conference…
January 16, 2018
Everett Economy