Air Tahiti Nui will be canceling one of its two routes to the United States, and this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
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Air Tahiti Nui cuts Seattle flights after a few years
Air Tahiti Nui has just updated its schedule to reflect that it’ll be cutting its route between Papeete (PPT) and Seattle (SEA) as of January 28, 2026. For context, as of recently the route has operated 2x weekly with the following schedule:
TN52 Papeete to Seattle departing 7:00AM arriving 6:15PM
TN51 Seattle to Papeete departing 8:30PM arriving 4:00AM (+1 day)
The 4,784-mile flight is blocked at 9hr15min northbound and 9hr30min southbound. As is the case with all of Air Tahiti Nui’s routes, this one is operated by a Boeing 787-9.
For context, the French Polynesian carrier launched this route in October 2022, as part of a larger partnership with Alaska Airlines. Then in June 2023, the airline extended this route, adding service from Seattle to Paris (CDG). As you’d expect, there’s lots of connectivity between French Polynesia and Metropolitan France, and while that route previously exclusively operated through Los Angeles (LAX), the airline wanted to mix it up a bit.
However, the route didn’t prove to be a success, unfortunately. As of January 2025, Air Tahiti Nui cut its Seattle to Paris route, and now as of January 2026, the airline will be cutting Seattle service altogether.
This is Air Tahiti Nui’s most unprofitable route
News of Air Tahiti Nui cutting Seattle flights shouldn’t come as a surprise. Recently I wrote about how Air Tahiti Nui has to restructure, as the airline is losing money on all routes but one. Based on the available information, here’s what we know about the financial performance of service to Air Tahiti Nui’s five destinations for 2024:
- Seattle (SEA) generated a loss of 1.68 billion XPF (16.3 million USD)
- Tokyo Narita (NRT) generated a loss of 875 million XPF (8.5 million USD)
- Auckland (AKL) generated a loss of 274 million XPF (2.7 million USD)
- Paris (CDG) generated a loss of 212 million XPF (2.0 million USD)
- Los Angeles (LAX) generated a profit of 1.1 billion XPF (10.7 million USD)
As you can see, Los Angeles is the only profitable route, and on top of that, Seattle is by far the most unprofitable route. The Seattle route has been more unprofitable than the three other money-losing routes combined. Demand has been really low, with flights consistently less than half full.
So we’ll see what’s next for Air Tahiti Nui, and which route the airline decides to add instead. It seems that the frontrunners are Honolulu (HNL), San Francisco (SFO), and Sydney (SYD), as each destination has distinct advantages.
While Seattle is a major market and the partnership with Alaska was useful, the reality is that the geography of Seattle just doesn’t make sense for this kind of service. Seattle is a geographically advantageous airport for flying across the northern part of the Pacific (or Atlantic), while it’s quite out of the way if you’re looking to travel to the southern part of the Pacific.
Bottom line
As of January 2026, Air Tahiti Nui will be cutting its route between Papeete and Seattle. We’ve known that this route was losing a lot of money, so it’s not surprising to see Air Tahiti Nui cut it. Despite the Alaska partnership and the attempt at flying to Paris out of Seattle, the load factors just never reached an acceptable level.
Hopefully the airline can find a more profitable (or at least less unprofitable) destination to send the plane to instead.
What do you make of Air Tahiti Nui cutting Seattle flights?
Well shoot...we have been twice to Tahiti in recent years, first time before the Air Tahiti Nui nonstops from/to Seattle and the second one on their nonstop. We are booked to go again in January...super sorry they couldn't make it pencil.
Air Tahiti Nui’s decision to discontinue its Seattle–Papeete route marks a bittersweet moment for Pacific Northwest travelers. Launched with high hopes, the direct connection to French Polynesia offered a rare escape to the South Pacific’s turquoise lagoons and volcanic peaks, without the usual layover in Los Angeles.
But behind the romance was a harsh reality: the route struggled with load factors below 50%, making it the airline’s most unprofitable. Unlike the bustling North Pacific corridor,...
Air Tahiti Nui’s decision to discontinue its Seattle–Papeete route marks a bittersweet moment for Pacific Northwest travelers. Launched with high hopes, the direct connection to French Polynesia offered a rare escape to the South Pacific’s turquoise lagoons and volcanic peaks, without the usual layover in Los Angeles.
But behind the romance was a harsh reality: the route struggled with load factors below 50%, making it the airline’s most unprofitable. Unlike the bustling North Pacific corridor, where business and leisure traffic between Asia and North America keeps planes full, the South Pacific market is more niche, driven by seasonal tourism and limited demand.
Consolidating operations through LAX may be a smart financial move, but it is a loss for Seattle’s international diversity and for travelers craving a more seamless journey to paradise. For now, Tahiti remains just a bit farther away.
Flew them on the last CDG-SEA back in January. Looked like the plane was full. Service, particularly on the ground, was very good.
Too bad.
I could not help but notice that you commented about the demand and connectivity to Paris and France in general but the loss for that flight too. The other point is that Air France operates the Paris to Tahiti via LAX too.
If TN could not do SEA-CDG, will Alaska be able to do it? Of course, Alaska could try daily service. The long term success of Alaska Airlines 787-9 and 787-10 is not clear in my mind. We'll see.
I don't think entering the SEA-CDG market would be a good idea for AS. CDG is an AF/KLM Sky Team hub and the route already has multiple flights per day on DL and AF in high season. I also worry about AS taking on SEA-LHR, where there are already 4 flights per day in high season, but at least there, AS has an alliance partner in BA. That would not be the case at CDG.
...I don't think entering the SEA-CDG market would be a good idea for AS. CDG is an AF/KLM Sky Team hub and the route already has multiple flights per day on DL and AF in high season. I also worry about AS taking on SEA-LHR, where there are already 4 flights per day in high season, but at least there, AS has an alliance partner in BA. That would not be the case at CDG.
As for AS's long haul ambitions in general, I think they will do well by adding new routes that are not currently served from SEA. For the 787-9, I would love to see BKK, SYD, and AKL from SEA. I am less bullish on the 787-10, which has less range but more capacity, but as you said, we shall see. As of now, though, they are only looking at 5 -10 models out of 17 total 787s.
I’m booked on this route in late November. Glad I’m not canceled.
I do hope they add HNL, as right now only Hawaiian flies that route, and it's not daily. That makes flights west cost to HNL with a stopover in Hawaii, then on to PPT an easy trip.
Glad I booked award space for two passengers a few months for May LAX to PPT in Premium (Alaska-ATMOS now) at only 40K each way. With SEA being dropped, I am sure they will move those passengers...
I do hope they add HNL, as right now only Hawaiian flies that route, and it's not daily. That makes flights west cost to HNL with a stopover in Hawaii, then on to PPT an easy trip.
Glad I booked award space for two passengers a few months for May LAX to PPT in Premium (Alaska-ATMOS now) at only 40K each way. With SEA being dropped, I am sure they will move those passengers SEA-LAX-PPT instead with less room for award tickets.
Coming back its Air France A350 service PPT to LAX at only 31K in Economy for a day flight. Its 3-3-3 in Economy on AF, thats not great, but it beats French Bee at 3-4-3 in an A350, which borders on cruel and unusual punishment.
Have not flown ATN before, hoping Premium is good enough as Business is way too many points.
I’m sadly one of those. I had SEA-PPT for 60K points a leg. Hopefully they can move me without too much of date alterations.
I saw this yesterday on ATN'S site. A fluke of timing. I'm rarely on their site, but couldn't recall if they flew SFO and YVR. Went immediately to AA's site to survey LAX awards. Completely gone through the end of the calendar. Where as the day before, at least 10 dates available. LAX-PPT and SEA-PPT were one of the last pacific routes to land reasonable J awards fairly easily, if you had some flexibility with...
I saw this yesterday on ATN'S site. A fluke of timing. I'm rarely on their site, but couldn't recall if they flew SFO and YVR. Went immediately to AA's site to survey LAX awards. Completely gone through the end of the calendar. Where as the day before, at least 10 dates available. LAX-PPT and SEA-PPT were one of the last pacific routes to land reasonable J awards fairly easily, if you had some flexibility with dates. There were usually 5-15 dates available at most times. No more of that now.
I’d love to see this plane at SFO!
I doubt they want to compete with United
Seattle's long haul expansion across the board is a folly. The city, and the airport cannot handle the volume and there's not enough traffic to justify it all. 4 airlines on SEA-TPE is a sign of significant problems, not success. Long term, DL will be run out of SEA. Its long haul operation there is deep in the red. AS will win, and eventually have a fairly compact, logical long haul network.
I keep reading that DL is losing money in Seattle but no one ever provides any actual data. If you have any facts (not just that others keep posting this idea), please share them. I can believe that a hub where DL has less than 30% market share (SEA) isn't as profitable as a fortress hub but please show me the data before making claims you can't substantiate. If we are looking only at market...
I keep reading that DL is losing money in Seattle but no one ever provides any actual data. If you have any facts (not just that others keep posting this idea), please share them. I can believe that a hub where DL has less than 30% market share (SEA) isn't as profitable as a fortress hub but please show me the data before making claims you can't substantiate. If we are looking only at market share, DL's share at LAX is even worse at less than 20%, but I don't read similar comments about how they are losing money there. The truth is that we don't know how any of this contributes to profit/loss because they don't report it by hub.
The case of TN is very different. The airline hired consultants to analyze each route. That's where Ben got his numbers and I tend to believe them. I just don't think there was much demand for Tahiti from SEA as it's often a much more expensive alternative to Hawai'i and much more difficult to get to, even with nonstops that only operated twice weekly.
Your idea of Seattle being a global hub as folly is itself folly. It is already a global hub--just not with AS, at least not yet. SQ, JA, ANA, KE, Asiana, CX (resuming next year), and yes, all 3 Taiwan carriers plus DL all fly from SEA to Asia. Turkish, Emirates, and Qatar all fly to SEA. DL, BA, Virgin Atlantic, AF, LH, Condor, Edelweiss, Finnair, SAS, Icelandair, Aer Lingus, etc., all fly from SEA to Europe. There has been consistent demand for long-haul nonstops all over the world from SEA.
I think it's fair to question how the new player, AS, will do in this competitive environment but it's just silly to think that SEA isn't already a global hub. The available facts just don't support that assertion.
Honestly, that above comment is just all vibes and no facts.
SEA has grown tons of new longhaul service in the past few years. None of them have axed routes, except for TN, which is struggling across the board, not because of SEA.
There was data that shows SEA is one of Delta's strongest international stations actually, and the only US hub to be in the top 10.
Flew this route 3 weeks ago. The service was impeccable, as good as anything experienced with Middle East carriers. J seats may be outdated, but the bulkhead seats had great legroom. Too bad it's going away. Only options mainland US to PPT will be out of LAX and SFO both of which are pricey awards. PPT-SEA cost only 55K AS miles.
It is notable that this is one of the only longhaul routes to be axed in the last few years of SEA longhaul expansion. Might be the only one to date since the pandemic tbh.
And more of that has to do with TN rather than SEA. For example, they axed the CDG route that was feeding the SEA route and loads plummeted.
Well said. I also just don't think that Tahiti is a huge draw for Seattleites. It's a lot more distant than Hawai'i and has a reputation for being very expensive. Only having twice a week nonstop service didn't help.
I've flown the LAX-CDG leg twice -- the business class seat is not competitive. The ship has the range for PPT-JFK . . . then on to CDG. Might that be an interesting market?
The LAX-CDG allows for utilization of aircraft and crews as much as it does allow for commercial opportunities.
think they’d be better off moving their only East Asian service from Narita to Seoul-Incheon. Since they already codeshare their Tokyo flight with Korean Air, relocating to Seoul would significantly improve connectivity to Mainland China.
Also, considering the limited number of Japanese domestic connections from Narita, travelers from regional cities in Japan might actually benefit from a smoother one-stop connection to Tahiti via Incheon.
Admittedly, I don’t know the exact point-to-point demand between Tokyo and...
think they’d be better off moving their only East Asian service from Narita to Seoul-Incheon. Since they already codeshare their Tokyo flight with Korean Air, relocating to Seoul would significantly improve connectivity to Mainland China.
Also, considering the limited number of Japanese domestic connections from Narita, travelers from regional cities in Japan might actually benefit from a smoother one-stop connection to Tahiti via Incheon.
Admittedly, I don’t know the exact point-to-point demand between Tokyo and Papeete — but if it can be effectively rerouted through Seoul, then why not?