You will know by now that Alaska Airlines will fly from its Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) hub to both Athens and Paris. Both routes will launch in May 2027 ahead of the peak summer. It’ll be the first time that SEA has ever had service to Greece, while Paris will have three operators for the first time since 2025.
Alaska now plans six long-haul routes from SEA, with the oneworld member stating that five more are due to be announced in the coming years. Obviously, this depends on having sufficient aircraft, crew, and more, along with space in the increasingly congested SEA.
The Carrier’s Long-Haul Routes From SEA So Far
Alaska began flying long-haul from SEA in May 2025, initially deploying Hawaiian Airlines’ Airbus A330-200s to Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT). Flights to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport (ICN) materialized in September 2025. Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO) welcomed the carrier in April 2026, followed by Keflavik International Airport (KEF), Iceland’s busiest airport, and London Heathrow Airport (LHR) in May 2026.
Then there are the latest additions: Athens International Airport (ATH) and Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG). In the 12 months to June 2026, booking data shows that SEA-ATH had 36,000 indirect local round-trip passengers (no nonstop flights meant that everyone flew via somewhere en route). CDG was third, with 113,000, behind LHR and Frankfurt. Like Alaska’s other routes, connectivity via SEA will also be important.
ATH was SEA’s largest unserved European market. It’ll become the only route between the US West Coast and Greece. The first-ever nonstop operation existed last year, when the troubled Norse Atlantic operated from ATH to Los Angeles between June and September. While it did not succeed, Alaska will have its much stronger brand awareness and network behind SEA to help in its attempt.
Let’s focus on the first week of June 2027, when the two new European routes will be operational. In that summer month, Alaska currently plans up to seven daily long-haul departures from SEA. This reflects what is known as of August 21, and certainly may change. It’ll remain SEA’s second-largest long-haul operator, after Delta Air Lines, which will reintroduce flights to NRT next March.
787-9 (due to replace the A330-200 in October 2026)
Alaska currently plans to operate five routes to Europe, but that number will increase in the future. This inevitably leads to possible markets. Generally, the airline focuses on leisure markets in Europe. It is reasonable to assume that it would have announced flights to Barcelona, but Delta beat it to it, with the first departure taking place in May 2026. Barcelona was SEA’s largest European destination. It’s a major city, key tourist location, great for cruises, and so on.
Future opportunities might involve Lisbon. The Portuguese capital is becoming an increasingly popular destination from the US and Canada. Cirium Diio data shows that 6,933 departures are available in 2026, which is 3% more than the prior record, set in 2024. The arrival of WestJet in May 2026 helped. Paradoxically, Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS) is renowned for a lack of slots, which might rule out Alaska’s arrival, at least for now. That’s why WestJet flies during the day to LIS, stays overnight, and leaves at around 6 AM.
Dublin is interesting. While Aer Lingus continues to serve SEA, it is a reasonably sized local market (107,000 passengers). In fact, it is SEA’s fourth-largest European market. A problem is the average fare. Despite covering 9% less distance than SEA-CDG, DUB’s average base fare is 25% lower due to less premium traffic. This might prove challenging.
The oneworld hub of Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD) would theoretically seem to be an obvious addition in partnership with Iberia. However, the existing indirect traffic is not overly high (33,000), although it’d easily grow by up to half from the provision of nonstop flights. Critically, the average base fare is much higher than most other European cities. While SEA-MAD flights would cover 6% more distance than Alaska’s upcoming SEA-CDG service, the fare is 9% higher. But as MAD is not much of an inbound market compared to the other places served or coming (ATH, CDG, FCO, KEF, LHR), this route may not happen.
Alaska Airlines is adding Paris and Athens as its Seattle rivalry with Delta expands across five European routes.
In April 2026, Alaska hinted that service from SEA to Sydney may happen. This built on reference to it in 2024. In the subsequent four months, nothing has been said publicly. If flights do materialize, they’d cover a considerable 6,725 nautical miles (7,739 statute miles; 12,455 km) each way. They’d exceed what is now the longest route (CDG to ATH) by a quarter.
Obviously, Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD) is by far the most-trafficked Australian airport to/from SEA. It’d also be a oneworld route in partnership with Qantas. As Qantas is launching flights to Las Vegas in December, SEA is now SYD’s largest unserved US market. Alaska would capture passengers flying between SEA and Australia/New Zealand in partnership with Qantas.
SEA would also be a good connecting hub to reach various other places in the US or Canada. For example, it’d only be around 2% longer to fly from multiple major cities, such as Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington DC, and so on, to SYD via SEA than what a theoretical nonstop flight would take. That’s really nothing. With the right schedule, it could be highly competitive.
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