Alaska Airlines’ newest route is now bookable, and it’s a (very) long one.
In this post:
Alaska Airlines unveils longest nonstop flight ever
In the summer of 2024, Alaska Airlines will introduce a new daily seasonal flight between Anchorage (ANC) and New York (JFK). Between June 13 and August 19, 2024, the airline will fly daily in the market, with the following schedule:
AS11 Anchorage to New York departing 8:00PM arriving 7:05AM (+1 day)
AS549 New York to Anchorage departing 9:45AM arriving 1:30PM
The flight will cover a distance of 3,385 miles, and is blocked at 7hr5min eastbound and 7hr45min westbound. The airline intends to use a Boeing 737 MAX 8 for the route, which is a new type of aircraft for the airline. Alaska’s Boeing 737 MAX 8s will feature 159 seats, including 12 first class seats and 147 economy class seats.
Alaska currently flies the 737 MAX 9, and the MAX 8 is the slightly smaller but slightly longer range version of the aircraft. Alaska is expected to take delivery of its first 737 MAX 8 in the coming months.
I think it’s safe to assume that this route is primarily targeted at leisure travelers from New York looking for a summer getaway in Alaska.
Are there longer Boeing 737 MAX routes?
Prior to this announcement, Alaska Airlines’ previous longest planned route was from Seattle to Nassau, which is a flight covering a distance of 2,887 miles. So this new Anchorage to New York route isn’t just a little bit longer than the previous longest planned route, but rather covers a distance of nearly an extra 500 miles. That’s a huge difference.
Where does this rank on the list of the world’s longest Boeing 737 MAX routes? Well, the world’s longest regularly scheduled, year-round Boeing 737 MAX route is operated by GOL, and is between Brasilia (BSB) and Orlando (MCO). This flight covers a distance of 3,777 miles, and is blocked at up to 8hr20min. So that’s nearly 400 miles longer than Alaska’s planned Anchorage to New York flight.
A couple of other fun things to think about here:
- A New York to Anchorage route is just 65 miles shorter than a New York to London route
- An Anchorage to New York route is just 47 miles shorter than an Anchorage to Tokyo route
While I don’t have any particular allegiance to Alaska Airlines, I still can’t help but dream of the airline once again resuming service across the Pacific from Alaska in some capacity… for some odd reason.
Bottom line
In the summer of 2024, Alaska Airlines is adding a new seasonal route between Anchorage and New York, which will be operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 8. While Alaska Airlines has long operated some seasonal services between Anchorage and other points in North America, this is by far the carrier’s longest route yet.
What do you make of Alaska’s new Anchorage to New York flight?
Wonderful. Finally some competition for the United Summer flight!!!
Virgin Australia flies the MAX from Cairns Australia to Tokyo Japan. It's about 300nm further than ANK to JFK
How many people would or do need to travel between these two airports to JFK from ANC and JFK to ANC, Anchorage is a small city with few needs to fly to NYC, even if they would connect to another destination, ANC is good for one thing CARGO that is what mostly flies out of ANC. Not to mention on a 737 max- how uncomfortable and boring and it's not a long flight by Honolulu...
How many people would or do need to travel between these two airports to JFK from ANC and JFK to ANC, Anchorage is a small city with few needs to fly to NYC, even if they would connect to another destination, ANC is good for one thing CARGO that is what mostly flies out of ANC. Not to mention on a 737 max- how uncomfortable and boring and it's not a long flight by Honolulu standards, if fact the longest domestic flight in the nation is HNL to JFK and BOS on Hawaiian Air on a bigger more comfortable jet, that's 10 or 11 hour flight
Aside from during Covid, I've never taken a flight out of Anchorage that hasn't been packed. SEA is almost always 100%, even with 2am departures. PDX, LAX, DIA, MSP, ORD...always packed regardless of the airline or time. Across all flights out of ANC to the lower48, load factor was between 81% and 84% last December. Between the 700k people in the state that fly out of Anchorage and all the transient workers (slope, fishing, logistics,...
Aside from during Covid, I've never taken a flight out of Anchorage that hasn't been packed. SEA is almost always 100%, even with 2am departures. PDX, LAX, DIA, MSP, ORD...always packed regardless of the airline or time. Across all flights out of ANC to the lower48, load factor was between 81% and 84% last December. Between the 700k people in the state that fly out of Anchorage and all the transient workers (slope, fishing, logistics, mining, medical) that commute, it's a very busy place. That's not even taking into account summer leisure traffic. I'd absolutely fly ANC
I LOVE IT! I can't believe it finally happened!
This is great! I'm sure this will be heavily used summer flight, and hopefully year-round for 1 or 2 flights a month.
Eastern is the only airline that is gonna fly 1-2 flights a month. I could see this being 3x weekly in the off season
That is great news! Very smart of Alaska to launch this route. The state of Alaska could definitely use better connectivity to the eastern seaboard. Now those people can more easily discover Alaska. I think this is a considerably better use of resources than something like JFK-LAX which they dropped. Also, Alaska’s existing product is a good fit for the route given that Alaska is more of a leisure destination than a premium one.
Flying back across the Pacific. A friend of mine was a AK flight attendant when they flew to Siberia. She brought me back some Russian vodka once. I didn't drink a lot, but it was the worst hangover ever. Here's to god knows what in that vodka.
Alaska has ETOPS aircraft from their Hawai’i fleet. An exciting idea to fly from ANC to Japan and South Korea…but it won’t happen.
Delta already did this in the summer before …and delta has an ANC ATL nonstop in the summer although they used 767….
It’s for cruise people /tourist season
Which is crazy In anchorage in the summer…but Alaskas service is meh and literally bare bones . Cool option though !
Delta already did this in the summer before …and delta has an ANC ATL nonstop in the summer although they used 767….
It’s for cruise people /tourist season
Which is crazy In anchorage in the summer…but Alaskas service is meh and literally bare bones . Cool option though !
I live in NYC and just visited Anchorage and Fairbanks and points in between. Got to see Denali up close and persoall and got to see the Northern lights on several nights. Loved every bit of it except getting there and back. On my return I did Fairbanks to Anchorage, Anchorage to Seattle, Seattle to JFK. All in all an 18 hr plus day so would welcome direct flights as there is so much more to see of that beautiful state!
Well I think Northern Pacific wanted to use Anchorage as a transpacific hub. Unfortunately, they had to make do with inefficient 757s and more importantly lacked the domestic network that could feed their transpacific legs from Anchorage.
I think an airline like Alaska with an established network may be able to make this happen- they have an established domestic network and could easily add some routes to key cities.
All they need is...
Well I think Northern Pacific wanted to use Anchorage as a transpacific hub. Unfortunately, they had to make do with inefficient 757s and more importantly lacked the domestic network that could feed their transpacific legs from Anchorage.
I think an airline like Alaska with an established network may be able to make this happen- they have an established domestic network and could easily add some routes to key cities.
All they need is some A321xlrs that will allow them to hit mainland China and perhaps even Hong Kong. They could very easily target secondary cities in Asia by offering one stop connectivity in the US.
Not going to happen; they've gotten rid of all their Airbus planes.
Norwegian used to fly a Boeing 737 Max between NY Stewart and Bergen (Edinburgh and Dublin also), a longer route than Anchorage to New York. No lie-flat seats at all, but a cheap (USD 99) and wonderful trip!
ohhhh to see a scissor hub in ANC with service to Tokyo and Seoul !
ANC-KEF is also the same distance as ANC-JFK
The (utterly ridiculous) comments on this thread are hilarious!
It's like some of you people have forgotten that thousands, if not millions, of travelers do 7hr+ nonstop trips, outside of lie-flat seats, to places every day.
That's the truth.
Not you though...
I live in Anchorage and most of my family lives in Vermont. I do like Alaska airlines for their generous leg room and I've yet to run into issues flying with them except that the closest they'll fly is to BOS or JFK and eastbound trips are 11-16 hours and westbound flights are 13-18 hours. This route will likely trim about 2-3 hours of that trip both ways. Now I only wish they would open more routes in New England.
It'll be interesting to see if it works! I'd be willing to take the day flight in F, but certainly wouldn't consider the overnight return.
Alaska needs lie flat badly for a route like this.
Yeah! I am going to book this travel for visiting family!
Great Thanks says X Yankee in Alaska!!
I would do this in a heartbeat. Lots of NYC friends could use this to come visit me in AK. I find it very elitist for commenters to say "what, no lie-flat seat?" For the majority of my FF experience, no airline had that. Getting spoiled? Of course, I have flown 8 hours in a C-17 with cargo netting as my seat, so ...
This feels like a route better served by a 321neo or xlr with lie-flat. I get the sense that a direct NYC-ANC flight will have a lot of premium demand that traditional domestic F seats won't exactly satisfy.
No new Yorker seeking an Alaska getaway will endure a flight of that length on a 737 with no lieflat.
On a 738/739? No thank you. Could you imagine what the bathrooms are like towards the end of flight.
Is there an ANC-Tokyo non stop route? I'm not seeing anything that can be ticketed.
it is all cargo airlines right now
A number of international carriers have operated NYC-ANC service on widebodies enroute to Asia but often were limited in the ability to carry local US passengers. B6 could have done this and I believe DL did it at one point.
The problem for AS is that there is no shortage of flights AS can operate in the summer but they need something to do with their airplanes for the other 9 months of the year.
...A number of international carriers have operated NYC-ANC service on widebodies enroute to Asia but often were limited in the ability to carry local US passengers. B6 could have done this and I believe DL did it at one point.
The problem for AS is that there is no shortage of flights AS can operate in the summer but they need something to do with their airplanes for the other 9 months of the year.
As for going to Asia, the only way Asia could work is via ANC and that is still over 8 hours going westbound on a widebody; 737s cruise slower. Add in that AS' aircraft don't have lie flat seats and they will miss the premium revenue, even if passengers are willing to make a stop in Alaska while every other airline is flying nonstop from the mainland. The ANC-Asia market is almost entirely just in the summer.
Sapporo is about an hour shorter than to Tokyo but it is a much smaller market.
AS will fly east coast to Alaska and make some money during the summer and then have to find something to do with a plane that can fly that far for the rest of the year - or forego higher profits on the larger 737 MAX 9 which is more efficient but slightly shorter range.
AS does have somthing to do with their aircraft the rest of the year: Hawaii and Mexico.
I remember Continental flying to ANC from Newark seasonally. Can't recall the aircraft for sure, but it was probably a 757.
Flights between Alaska and Asia (by other carriers) have tended to be seasonal in winter for aurora tourism.
AS has a larger seasonal balance in revenue than any other large jet US airline because the PNW and Alaska generates so much revenue in the summer.
AS doesn't stop flying to Latin America or Hawaii in the summer and they don't fly enough more there in the winter to make up for the revenue shortfall from the PNW in the winter.
The notion that AS will fly to Japan with a 737 is...
AS has a larger seasonal balance in revenue than any other large jet US airline because the PNW and Alaska generates so much revenue in the summer.
AS doesn't stop flying to Latin America or Hawaii in the summer and they don't fly enough more there in the winter to make up for the revenue shortfall from the PNW in the winter.
The notion that AS will fly to Japan with a 737 is not based on any reality or fact.
There is virtually no market between Japan and Alaska and it has been larger in the summer than in the winter.
Yes, 7 hours in a 737 sounds like hell. But what are the other choices? It’s not like a transatlantic itinerary where you can easily take a direct/one-stop wide body flight. Almost all other options would mean a longer trip still on narrow bodies, granted a stop would break it up. I guess Delta One on a 757 to Seattle and then connect to Anchorage is the only slightly more appealing option?
Makes you wonder if Alaska is going to take delta’s PDX-HND slots to launch ANC-HND.
IIRC, getting to Asia from Alaska requires significant backtracking through SEA these days.
No.
Absolutely not. They would just fly to Narita if they ever did this. They would be catering to Japanese leisure travelers, which is NRT's focus. Plus JAL has an NRT hub and is a Oneworld partner, so they'd have potential connectivity beyond NRT.
in non-lie flat First class seats, no way José!
Cheers!
My thoughts exactly. No thank you. I was crawling out of my skin last time I did SEA-OGG in Comfort Plus on DL, two hours more? Not happening.
Oh No. If it feels uncomfortable in the industry-leading * premium * Comfort Plus (yes, it's a PLUS!!!), how hard would life be in regular Economy or Recliner J? Absolutely unfathomable.
Sure but then which airlines offer lie-flat on that route anyway? None. Maybe with a change somewhere but that is a hassle
Oh you poor baby. Mommy will comfort you. Call her.
Wondering if anything will be temporarily cut from the AS schedule at JFK to make way for JFK-ANC? Perhaps a SFO frequency?
Alaska’s answer is always to cut an SFO frequency.
I think they're actually growing their fleet now, with the legacy VX Airbuses all being retired. So I don't think they'll necessarily be cutting anything else. They have 15 MAX 8s on order, and I suspect they'll be scheduled more on these very long routes.
It's a slot issue, not an aircraft issue.
Imagine a centre seat in economy for over 7hrs- and overnight - a nightmare
Not to mention on a 737
Is it really that much different from a center seat in economy for over 7 hours on any other Long Haul flight?
There's also Virgin Australia's Cairns-Narita service at 3638 miles.
I think it is VA77/78 between Cairns and Haneda, not Narita.
Tomato/Tomarto.