This is pretty cool — Alaska Airlines will be adding a flight to Hawaii out of the Seattle area’s second airport. This also represents Alaska’s first new route to Hawaii in over a decade.
In this post:
Alaska adds Everett to Honolulu flight as of November 2023
As of November 17, 2023, Alaska will launch a new daily year-round flight between Paine Field (PAE) and Honolulu (HNL). Alaska will use a Boeing 737-900 for this 2,693-mile route. Until January 8, 2024, the flight will operate with the following schedule:
AS850 Paine Field to Honolulu departing 9:10AM arriving 1:38PM
AS849 Honolulu to Paine Field departing 11:25PM arriving 7:10AM (+1 day)
When the flight operates with this schedule, it’s blocked at 6hr28min westbound and 5hr45min eastbound. Since I’m sure someone will ask, presumably the plane won’t sit on the ground for nearly 10 hours. Rather, Alaska has quite a few flights to Honolulu, so I imagine aircraft will just swap between routes there.
Then as of January 8, 2024, the flight will operate with the following schedule:
AS850 Paine Field to Honolulu departing 9:25AM arriving 1:40PM
AS849 Honolulu to Paine Field departing 2:40PM arriving 10:47PM
When the flight operates with this schedule, it’s blocked at 6hr15min westbound and 6hr7min eastbound.
With this new service, Alaska will fly to Hawaii from eight gateways on the West Coast. The airline will have a total of 30 nonstop daily flights to Hawaii during peak periods, which is pretty impressive.
Here’s how Kirsten Amrine, Alaska’s VP of Revenue Management and Network Planning, describes this new route:
“If there’s one place our guests told us again and again that they wanted to fly to from Seattle’s northern airport, it’s beautiful Hawaii. We’ve been eager to make it happen. We’ve proudly served the Hawaiian Islands for more than 15 years. This new route adds Seattle/Everett to our list of West Coast gateways to Honolulu. We’ll be ready to say aloha to our guests on this new flight this fall.”
This is an exciting expansion for Paine Field
Keep in mind that Paine Field only got commercial service as of 2019. This airport is home to Boeing’s Everett Factory, so for us avgeeks, it’s a pretty awesome airport. It’s great to see commercial service at this airport for several reasons:
- There are more than a million people living in the North Sound, and this is a very convenient airport for those people
- SeaTac Airport is quite congested, so if air service to the region will continue to grow, it’s important to have another airport
- Paine Field is a pleasure to fly out of, as it has a new terminal that’s much nicer than your average airport terminal
That being said, to be objective, service to the airport hasn’t exactly been a resounding success. Due to gate limitations, there was initially quite some competition for service there. At first, Alaska, Southwest, and United, announced plans to offer flights to the airport, bringing the terminal to capacity.
Well, Southwest and United no longer fly to Paine Field, and the only service being offered is by Alaska and Kenmore Air. Alaska seems to be doing reasonably well with its service from the airport, and serves nearly a dozen destinations, mostly through its regional partner Horizon Air.
This is by far the most interesting route we’ve seen out of the airport, as service has otherwise only gone as far as Anchorage to the northwest, and as far as Phoenix to the southeast.
Bottom line
As of November 2023, Alaska Airlines will launch a new daily nonstop flight between Paine Field and Honolulu. The flight will operate with a Boeing 737, and will be a great option for those wanting to escape the Pacific Northwest for some sunshine. Paine Field is much more manageable than SeaTac, so I’m sure this is a service that many will appreciate.
What do you make of Alaska’s new Paine Field to Honolulu route?
Well, if Alaska's going to start 737 service from PAE, how about adding direct Chicago and Dallas service, to also have a better connection for East Coast destinations?
What a terrible airline. Flew with our high school marching band from Philly to Seattle then on to Hawaii. Surprised they didn't pull out cattle prongs to move us along. They threaten to through my off a flight after I mudder under my breath "What a crappy airline!"
A bunch of old planes with fancy graphics. God help you if your window shade is down. Find some other airline to the Island. Know your rights when flying them.
PAE is a great small airport that deserves more flights. The added bonus of being able to spot all the Boeing planes getting assembled and tested and go to the flight museums nearby is great. At the same time, I'm wondering how this route will fare compared to their discontinued Bellingham to Honolulu flight which was fairly similar.
I wonder how they'd cater the food for first class passengers departing from PAE. I don't think there's any caterer around PAE area.. Will they serve the food from HNL?
What people have failed to mention is that parking at PAE is expensive. There are no low-cost private lots. There is no transit service at all. Rental cars are challenging. Uber rides are expensive. Unless you have someone dropping you off and picking you up, it will be expensive to use PAE for a week in Hawaii.
I wonder if they would add GEG-HNL
Seasonally (winter) there's service between PAE and Tucson, just a wee bit more southeast than PHX :)
I know they flew the route last year, and a random check of one day this year indicates the flight is returning.
Convenient? Yes. Adds to the drip drip drip of additional flights that will eventually make Paine Field a major airport that increasingly disrupts the lives of thousands of Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mill Creek, and Mukilteo residents? ABSOLUTELY YES!
Commercial flights at Paine Field was billed as a limited, low impact, "nobody will even notice" type of service. Anyone with any foresight knew that that was not true. The camel has poked it's nose under the tent...
Convenient? Yes. Adds to the drip drip drip of additional flights that will eventually make Paine Field a major airport that increasingly disrupts the lives of thousands of Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mill Creek, and Mukilteo residents? ABSOLUTELY YES!
Commercial flights at Paine Field was billed as a limited, low impact, "nobody will even notice" type of service. Anyone with any foresight knew that that was not true. The camel has poked it's nose under the tent and there is no stopping increasing flights, including air cargo flights.
Oh, good grief. The number of passenger flights at PAE hasn't increased. They are capped and dwarfed by private aviation, and freight and Boeing-related flight movements.
This is hilarious because I live in that area. Every time I hear a Karen complain about the “commercial flights ruining the neighborhood” they are inevitably pointing to a newly assembled Boeing plane going for a test flight. The camel poking its nose under the tent isn’t flights, it’s the suburban development. Ask an old timer what the airport was like in the old days: It was an active navy base with military jets flying in and out at all hours of day and night.
"Southwest and United no longer fly to Paine Field." Actually, Southwest never did. They announced they would fly to PAE, but canceled those plans before beginning service, and transferred the slots to AS.
While this is the first time Alaska will fly this route, they use to fly from Bellingham (BLI) to several Hawaii airports. BLI is just over an hour north of PAE, so there would be some overlap in passengers flying from these...
"Southwest and United no longer fly to Paine Field." Actually, Southwest never did. They announced they would fly to PAE, but canceled those plans before beginning service, and transferred the slots to AS.
While this is the first time Alaska will fly this route, they use to fly from Bellingham (BLI) to several Hawaii airports. BLI is just over an hour north of PAE, so there would be some overlap in passengers flying from these smaller northwest Washington airports (though BLI is often thought of as a YVR alternative).
Please bring back the Spokane to Everett route! We don’t like flying into SEA.
Seattle native. This is a godsend.
I love the beautiful interior this websites shows of the Alaskan Airlines interior upon the header. The Airbus upgrade looks so modern and fresh in the photo. Hopefully they will sub it to Paine Field on occasion to Hawaii.
I used to watch the huge airliners at Everett Paine Field as they were parked in various locations post assembly. The huge airliners take off from Everett all the time so this is a great place for plane spotting. The Boeing factory tour and museum is a must as you can watch them assemble the aircraft.
I would love it if we could fly to Mazatlan from Paine Field but if that isn't in the budget please give us better connectors through Los Angeles or Phoenix