Alaska Airlines announced 3 new routes from Newark

Alaska Airlines announced a “significant expansion to the New York City area” that will see it add four additional flights and three new routes at Newark Liberty International Airport.

The airline's new routes to Newark will be from its West Coast bases in Portland, Ore.; San Diego and San Jose, Calif.  Alaska Airlines also will add an additional daily flight from Newark to its main hub in Seattle, giving it three daily round-trip flights on that route.

Alaska Airlines is able to expand at Newark thanks to the Federal Aviation Administration’s recent decision to ease “slot” restrictions there. Previous capacity controls at the airport made it extremely difficult for airlines to add new flights at the airport, where United controlled the vast majority of the so-called takeoff and landing slots.

A number of new airlines have rushed in with new Newark service following the change by the FAA.

“Ultra low-cost” carrier Allegiant announced in June that it would expand to the airport, giving that company its first-ever flights to one of New York City’s three big airports. Icelandic discounter WOW Air followed suit just a day later, announcing flights to Iceland and Europe for as little as $99 one way. Southwest and JetBlue also have taken advantage of the relaxed restrictions to bolster their schedules at the airport.

Now, Alaska Airlines is the latest to join the rush for the newly available turf at Newark.
“We thank the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for their efforts to increase competition in the New York metro area,” John Kirby, Alaska Airlines’ VP of capacity planning, says in a statement.

Alaska Air’s Portland-Newark route will launch Nov. 10 while its San Diego-Newark route will debut Nov. 21. The carrier’s San Jose-Newark flights begin March 12. Alaska Air’s third daily round-trip to Seattle starts May 14. Tickets for the new flights will go on sale on Monday (July 25). Alaska Air will fly all of the new flights on Boeing 737 aircraft.

Alaska Air will be the only carrier offering nonstop service between San Jose and Newark. The airline will go head-to-head against United on the nonstop routes from Newark to San Diego and Portland.

Alaska Air’s new Newark service also comes as the carrier has been steadily increasing its presence on cross-country routes. Alaska Air has long been one of the largest carriers on routes between West Coast cities, but has added a number of high-profile coast-to-coast routes since mid-2013.

Those include: Baltimore-Seattle; Baltimore-Los Angeles; Boston-San Diego; Charleston, S.C.-Seattle; New York JFK-Seattle; Nashville-Seattle; Portland-Orlando; Raleigh/Durham-Seattle and Washington Dulles-Seattle.

Alaska Air also has launched several medium-length routes from its western bases to the central U.S., such as recent routes like Portland-Kansas City; Portland-St. Louis; Seattle-Dallas/Fort Worth and Seattle-Milwaukee.

As for the new Newark routes, they'll also help Alaska Air bolster its presence in Portland, San Diego and San Jose. Portland is the carrier’s No. 2 hub while San Diego and San Jose are significant focus cities for the airline.

“Since 2015, Alaska has launched 28 new routes from our West Coast hubs and focus cities," Kirby adds in Alaska Air's statement. "With our new expanded service to Newark, we continue to grow our West Coast footprint by offering our valued customers more nonstop flights to popular business and leisure destinations.”

Alaska Air stands to gain an even larger cross-country presence with its acquisition of Virgin America, which was announced in April.

Virgin America operates numerous cross-country routes from its hubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The acquisition – should it ultimately win approval – also would cement Alaska Airlines as a West Coast juggernaut, giving it a supersized presence on routes along the Pacific Coast.

USATODAY