In late 2024, Alaska Air Group acquired Hawaiian Airlines, and announced plans to turn Seattle-Tacoma into a global hub, launching a dozen long haul routes by 2030. Along those lines, it’s an exciting day for the airline group, as the first of these routes has just been launched.
In this post:
Alaska Air Group’s new Seattle to Tokyo Narita route
As of today (Monday, May 12, 2025), Hawaiian Airlines has launched daily, year-round, nonstop flights between Seattle (SEA) and Tokyo Narita (NRT). The flight operates with the following schedule:
HA823 Seattle to Tokyo departing 1:30PM arriving 4:00PM (+1 day)
HA824 Tokyo to Seattle departing 6:25PM arriving 11:30AM
The 4,739-mile flight is blocked at 10hr30min westbound and 9hr5min eastbound. Hawaiian Airlines is using an Airbus A330-200 for the route, featuring 278 seats, comprised of 18 business class seats and 260 economy class seats.
As a reminder, Hawaiian’s business class is in a 2-2-2 configuration, so that’s not terribly competitive nowadays. Alaska Air Group does plan to update the interiors of its A330s to be more competitive, but there’s no timeline for that yet. Meanwhile economy is quite comfortable, given the 2-4-2 layout, as many people like the pair of seats by the windows. These planes also have Starlink Wi-Fi, offering fast and free connectivity.
With Alaska and Hawaiian still being on separate operating certificates, there’s understandably some confusion about how exactly service like this works:
- The flight is operated by Hawaiian crews, since the work groups of the two carriers are still separate
- The flight is bookable through the websites of Alaska or Hawaiian, whether paying cash or redeeming miles
- The plan is only for Hawaiian to join the oneworld alliance as of 2026, so as of now you couldn’t earn or redeem other oneworld miles for these flights, or take advantage of oneworld Emerald or oneworld Sapphire elite perks
- It appears that for the time being, these flights have the typical Hawaiian soft product, in terms of amenities and meals; for example, here’s the menu for this new route, with things like mai tais, macadamia nuts, and more
While Tokyo Narita is the first destination for Alaska Air Group from Seattle, the plan is for there to be a dozen long haul routes by 2030, so there is an area where the company sees huge growth, and over time, we can expect most of Hawaiian’s wide body aircraft to fly from the Pacific Northwest. Alaska even plans to open a flagship international lounge at the airport, though details remain limited.
Alaska Air Group has already announced plans to launch a route to Seoul Incheon (ICN) as of September 2025, and plans to add its first route to Europe as of some point in 2026.
For those wanting to redeem Alaska Mileage Plan miles for this route, it seems like the cheapest mileage requirements are 95,000 miles one-way.
My take on Alaska Air Group’s new Seattle to Tokyo Narita route
Tokyo Narita seems like a logical first long haul airport for Alaska Air Group to serve out of Seattle:
- Japan is the closest major transpacific gateway from the Pacific Northwest, so that’s good in terms of operating costs and flight length
- Narita Airport isn’t slot congested, so the airline can add this service without needing much in the way of complicated regulatory approval
- Narita Airport has lots of connectivity with oneworld airlines, so this is a good first route for serving Asia at large; Hawaiian also has a partnership with Japan Airlines
- Seattle to Tokyo is also a super competitive market, with existing service (either to Haneda or Narita) from All Nippon Airways, Delta Air Lines, and Japan Airlines
- While it hasn’t happened yet, the plan is reportedly for Alaska to try to join the transpacific joint venture with American and Japan Airlines, which would be a major boost for this kind of service; however, that’s far from becoming a reality, and requires regulatory approval
This service also makes sense in the context of Hawaiian’s struggles flying wide body aircraft profitably. Alaska Air Group notes how this new Seattle to Tokyo Narita route enables the airline to right-size capacity between Hawaii and Japan, given that it’s a market that has experienced weaker leisure travel demand in the wake of the pandemic.
With Hawaiian launching this new route, the airline has discontinued its route between Honolulu (HNL) and Tokyo Narita (NRT), and is instead focusing its service from Hawaii on the Tokyo Haneda (HND) route, which is served up to twice daily.
Ultimately I think this is a smart move on Alaska’s part. I am a bit puzzled by why long haul service is starting with A330s rather than 787s, since the latter have a much more competitive onboard product.
But when you combine Alaska’s massive network out of Seattle, its loyal customer base, and the pretty good economics of this route, I think the airline will succeed with its long haul strategy from Seattle.
Bottom line
Alaska Air Group has just launched daily nonstop flights between Seattle and Tokyo Narita, using Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A330s. This is the first of a dozen long haul routes that Alaska Air Group plans to launch out of Seattle by 2030, and it’s a super exciting development, if you ask me.
A Seattle to Seoul Incheon route will launch as of September 2025, and the plan is to operate Europe flights as of 2026.
What do you make of Hawaiian’s new Seattle to Tokyo Narita route?
Not seeing any JAL availability SEA-NRT on the Alaska website. Used to see, at least, occasionally, JAL Biz SEA-NRT for 60k AK Air Miles. Are these now gone for good?
The branding I think is going to confuse a lot of people. Not trying to be pessimistic but I think Alaska is being overly optimistic with Seattle being this huge long haul powerhouse hub. I think they will be able to grow it of course, but I’m not sure a huge amount of demand is actually there for them and most will still fly other carriers with a more established product and international brand. Hawaiian brand flying out of Seattle but to Japan just seems off to me
Can't speak to the brand itself but Hawaii is a much more popular destination vacation from Japan than Alaska so there's gotta some recognition there
Interesting that they hinted 12 long haul flights. The first one launched on May 12th, and the second on Sep 12th.
Maybe because of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12s
The performance outlook doesn't seem great, I looked at the inaugural data and it's quite below average on the US to Tokyo side, and the Tokyo to US side is abyssmal.
It might do nominally better than HNL-NRT, but I don't think it's doing very well.
It has a below average business class cabin both in terms of size and product, and they're not even close to filling it up.
@ yoloswag420 -- Yeah, I think there are definitely going to be some growing pains, and maybe it'll be harder at first than expected. The branding is confusing to people, the hard product is subpar for now, and it also takes time to build up awareness and market share. I think the airline will succeed eventually (Alaska is such a strong brand in Seattle, and has huge connectivity and great geography for transpacific flying), but...
@ yoloswag420 -- Yeah, I think there are definitely going to be some growing pains, and maybe it'll be harder at first than expected. The branding is confusing to people, the hard product is subpar for now, and it also takes time to build up awareness and market share. I think the airline will succeed eventually (Alaska is such a strong brand in Seattle, and has huge connectivity and great geography for transpacific flying), but I think Alaska Air Group needs to expedite its A330 refresh program, if that's happening, or put 787s on these routes (along with Wi-Fi).
I get that Alaska is a strong brand in Seattle, but would Seattleites choose AS over NH or JL on that route? Connecting passengers from other West Coast cities generally have even more options to get to TYO.
@Tony yes - because of the loyalty system. One could credit JAL to AS, but at a lower rate in most cases. If AS retrofits the A330s or swaps to 787, they will also have a better hard product than what is on JL/NH SEA 787 flights.
NH edge is they fly SEA-HND, but loyal AS flyers won't be able to earn miles/status they want, get OW benefits, or use the future AS flagship Lounge at SEA.
Alaska has publicly stated that they will use the 787’s for long haul flying out of Seattle.
Despite the Kool-Aid drunk in Seattle, Hawaiian Airlines is a better name for widebodies than Alaska, except in Seattle. All A330 and 787 flights should be Hawaiian.
I get it that the Virgin America name was expensive but Alaska should not pick their weaker name again, particularly since the Hawaiian name is free.
In other words, Alaska is a big name in Seattle but nowhere else in the world. Hawaiian is better. Maybe put Chester on the tail but keep the Hawaiian name
What’s the award availability situation?
Available almost every day at the "standard" rate of 150k one-way. The "lower" price (which, at 95k, is obscene for a 2-2-2 product in 2025) is available much less frequently.
Ben: NRT is very much a slot controlled airport. I think what you mean is NRT is "not a slot congested airport."
@ AMT -- My mistake, you're of course correct, thanks. Updated.
There's some humor in "Alaska" and "Hawaiian" combining to launch routes between Seattle and Japan
Congrats to Ben, destroying Hawaiian bit by bit