SEATTLE - Alaska Airlines and Virgin America are growing their footprint in the Lone Star State, expanding service to Dallas Love Field from four West Coast airports. With new routes between Love Field and
Seattle;
San Diego;
Portland, Oregon; and
San Jose, California, the combined airline will serve eight destinations from Love Field with 18 daily peak season departures, up 40 percent.
“These new routes offer Dallas business flyers complete West Coast utility from one of the fastest growing corporate centers in the country, one that is home to 54 Fortune 500 companies,” said
John Kirby, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of capacity planning. “Guests flying between the West Coast and both of
North Texas’s major airports will enjoy
Alaska and Virgin America’s award winning service and convenient schedules.”
Just four months into its merger with Virgin America, Alaska Airlines has announced unprecedented growth from the West Coast, adding a record 37 new markets to date. The new Love Field expansion builds on
Alaska’s successful service to
Texas, which began 12 years ago. After today’s announcement, Alaska Airlines and Virgin America will offer guests 59 peak season flights a day to/from five
Texas airports, including
Austin,
Dallas Fort Worth,
Dallas Love Field,
Houston and
San Antonio.
The four new routes will be flown using three-class jets. The Embraer 175 jet, operated by SkyWest Airlines, will fly daily to
Portland,
San Diego,
San Jose and
Seattle. One of the two daily flights to
Seattle will be operated by Virgin America using an A320 family aircraft. All guests flying the new routes will enjoy Free Chat, free movies, premium food and beverages, Wi-Fi and advance seat selection.
Widely recognized as having one of the industry’s best loyalty programs, members of Alaska Mileage Plan can:
- Earn miles based on actual miles flown on Alaska Airlines and Virgin America flights
- Access more than 900 worldwide destinations with Alaska and Alaska Global Partners
- Enjoy award travel starting at 5,000 miles*
- Enjoy a faster path to elite status compared to other carriers, with benefits including: complimentary upgrades**, free checked bags, preferred check-in and boarding, express security and no change fees for MVP Gold & 75K members
In addition to the four new markets, Alaska Airlines and Virgin America are streamlining the airlines’ route network at Love Field, redeploying aircraft to meet consumer demand in existing and new markets.
Starting this summer, Virgin America jets will be replaced with a 76-seat E175 jet in two Love Field markets –
New York’s LaGuardia Airport and
Washington, D.C.‘s Reagan National Airport. On
Aug. 27, three-times daily service to
New York’s LaGuardia Airport will operate using an E175 and increase to four daily flights on
Oct. 28. Starting
Feb. 18, twice-daily service to Reagan National Airport will also be replaced with an E175. The third daily Love Field-Washington Reagan National daily trip will continue to be operated by Virgin America until
March 11, when SkyWest will take over the evening flight. As part of these schedule changes, Virgin America will permanently exit Love Field-Las Vegas on
Aug. 26.
“Optimizing the fleet and matching the right plane to the right market to is one of the key benefits of our merger with Virgin America,” said Kirby. “Prior to merger, Virgin America lacked a regional aircraft to take advantage of mid-sized routes. The fuel-efficient E175 jet has the same amenities and features of a mainline jet and is perfectly suited for Love Field.”
The fleet changes will free up Virgin America planes used in Love Field, to fly new, previously announced long-haul
San Francisco flights to
Philadelphia,
New Orleans,
Nashville,
Indianapolis, Raleigh-Durham and Kona, as well as new flights between
Los Angeles and
Philadelphia.
Virgin America will continue to operate three daily flights between Love Field and
Los Angeles and three daily flights between Love Field and
San Francisco. Additionally, all Virgin America employees in
Dallas and LaGuardia are keeping their jobs. There is no change in employment status for any teammates as a result of this announcement.
Summary of new service:
Start date
|
City pair
|
Departs
|
Arrives
|
Aircraft
|
Frequency
|
Aug. 27
|
Dallas-Seattle
|
10:20 a.m.
|
12:48 p.m.
|
A320 family
|
Daily
|
Aug. 27
|
Seattle-Dallas
|
1:30 p.m.
|
7:45 p.m.
|
A320 family
|
Daily
|
Aug. 27
|
Seattle-Dallas
|
9:45 a.m.
|
3:45 p.m.
|
E175
|
Daily
|
Aug. 28
|
Dallas-Seattle
|
3:38 p.m.
|
5:55 p.m.
|
E175
|
Daily
|
Aug. 27
|
Portland-Dallas
|
6 a.m.
|
11:44 a.m.
|
E175
|
Daily
|
Aug. 28 - Oct. 27
|
Dallas-Portland
|
10:35 a.m.
|
12:40 p.m.
|
E175
|
Daily
|
Oct. 28
|
Dallas-Portland
|
7:28 p.m.
|
9:32 p.m.
|
E175
|
Daily
|
Feb. 16
|
Dallas-San Diego
|
8:39 p.m.
|
9:54 p.m.
|
E175
|
Daily
|
Feb. 16
|
San Diego-Dallas
|
7:45 a.m.
|
12:45 p.m.
|
E175
|
Daily
|
Feb. 16
|
Dallas-San Jose
|
1:25 p.m.
|
3:15 p.m.
|
E175
|
Daily
|
Feb. 16
|
San Jose-Dallas
|
2:40 p.m.
|
7:59 p.m.
|
E175
|
Daily
|
Flight times based on local time zones.
|