Alaska Airlines Adds 18 Sunny and Ski Destinations for Winter Travel

Alaska Airlines is expanding its winter travel schedule with 18 new routes to sun-drenched vacation hotspots and snowy getaways, including a brand-new destination: Eagle, Colorado (EGE), for the fashionable ski resort Vail.

For winter travelers who like to chase warm temperatures, the carrier will offer seven new routes to Mexico.

Between December and February, Alaska will operate a daily flight between Fresno (FAT) and Guadalajara (GDL).

Starting in January and running into the spring, Alaska will introduce a four-times-weekly flight between New York City (JFK) and Puerto Vallarta (PVR), the first nonstop link between New York state and the resort town.

Alaska will also launch once-weekly flights from Sacramento (SMF), Kansas City (MCI), and St. Louis (STL) to Puerto Vallarta and another route from Kansas City to Cancún (CUN). A five-times weekly flight will shuttle Sacramentans to Los Cabos (SJD) and the top Mexican tourist destination, Cabo San Lucas.

Photo: Cabo San Lucas. Courtesy of John Cafazza / Unsplash.

These seasonal routes join the two new Mexican destinations Alaska Airlines unveiled last week: La Paz (LAP) in Baja California Sur and Monterrey (MTY), to be served year-round from Los Angeles (LAX) starting this fall.

Alaska will also increase its flights to Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR), a destination it first reached in 2015 and currently serves from LAX. Between December and May, Alaska will fly once weekly to Costa Rica from its hubs in Seattle (SEA) and San Francisco (SFO).

With the addition of the Costa Rica flight, Alaska will operate 104 nonstop flights from its home base of Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. The flights will also underline Alaska’s status as “the largest U.S. carrier between the West Coast and Latin America,” it says.

For those searching for winter snow, Alaska is also adding links to North America’s best ski resorts. That includes its first service to Eagle County Regional Airport, the gateway to Vail and its slopes, from Seattle and San Diego (SAN).

Photo: Vail, Colorado. Katie Musial on Unsplash

A new flight from LAX to Kelowna, Canada (YLW) will connect Angelinos to British Colombia’s best ski resorts. At the same time, San Diegans will have easier access to Reno (REN) and the ski resorts around Lake Tahoe.

Other new routes on the list target vacation favorites: a seasonal service between Boise, Idaho (BOI) and Bozeman, Montana (BZN), gateway to Yellowstone National Park, and winter flights from Sacramento and Boise to Orlando (MCO) for Central Florida’s warm weather and theme park smorgasbord.

The only year-round service on the list is a link between Boise and John Wayne Airport (SNA) in California, just miles from Disneyland.

Photo: Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9. Courtesy of Alaska Airlines

“We’re thrilled to offer convenient connection for guests across our network with this expansion—whether checking destinations off their bucket lists or setting off to their favorite winter getaways, we’ve put together an exciting range of options from tropical destinations across Mexico to the most popular ski slopes in North America,” Kirsten Amrine, vice president of network planning and revenue management at Alaska Airlines, said.

By doubling down on leisure travel, Alaska Airlines may be hoping to offset the slow recovery of its corporate travel business following the pandemic. The airline has been particularly hit by slashed travel budgets among the tech giants near its Seattle and San Francisco hubs. While meetings can be Zoom calls, Alaska is betting that real-life vacations still have appeal.