Alaska Launching Seattle To Europe Flights In 2026: Could Rome Be First?

It’s quite a transformative time for Alaska Air Group, as the company acquired Hawaiian Airlines, and is turning Seattle-Tacoma into a global hub, with plans to launch a dozen long haul routes by 2030.

We’ve just seen the airline launch flights to Tokyo Narita (NRT), and then flights to Seoul Incheon (ICN) are launching as of September 2025. We’re now getting a sense of what the next destinations will be.

Alaska launching Europe flights in Q2 2026

Alaska Air Group CEO Ben Minicucci has this week revealed that the carrier’s next long haul destination will be in Europe, and that service is expected to launch in Q2 2026 (so in the April to June timeframe). However, he stopped short of actually revealing which airport the airline would serve. It seems that we should expect the airline to add around two long haul routes per year, through 2030, give or take.

While I have no doubt that Alaska will succeed with long haul service in the long run, the airline faces some unique challenges as it establishes itself in these markets:

• Alaska isn’t currently part of any long haul joint venture, which is often the key to unlocking high yield traffic across the Atlantic and Pacific; that’s something the airline is working on, though
• While Alaska’s Seattle base has a great geographic advantage for transpacific flying for those coming from all over the US, the same advantage isn’t there in the same way for transatlantic flying, aside from serving those on the West Coast
• Alaska’s acquisition of Hawaiian is a work in progress, and for now, the branding is confusing; Hawaiian is operating long haul routes out of Seattle for the time being, so the branding isn’t necessarily obvious to Alaska customers
• The current long haul flying is being operated by Hawaiian A330s, which has a lackluster hard product compared to the competition; while there are plans to upgrade this, there’s no timeline for doing so

Where in Europe will Alaska likely fly?

With Alaska not having yet announced which destination in Europe will be served first, let’s speculate. The good news for Alaska is that premium leisure demand across the Atlantic is strong, so I think Alaska will actually have better luck there than in Asia, given its strong Mileage Plan membership base.

I guess there are two ways that Alaska could approach this service:

• The airline could try to serve a partner airline hub that offers the most connectivity, trying to provide access to many markets with one route
• The airline could try to serve a destination that has a lot of leisure demand, in spite of not being a partner airline hub

One interesting thing is that back when Alaska announced it would launch long haul flights, it provided the below map, showing the geographic advantage that Seattle has compared to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Two of the Asian destination with the biggest advantages were the first to be launched.

Meanwhile Alaska only showed three European destinations — London, Paris, and Rome. I imagine that’s not a coincidence, and reflects the markets that the airline is most looking at.

The way I view it:

• London seems like the obvious choice, given that it’s a British Airways hub, but the challenge is that Heathrow is slot controlled, so I think that service launching is a function of whether Alaska can secure slots; with Alaska not having a joint venture with British Airways, I wouldn’t expect some sort of lucrative slot deal
• Paris and Rome are both huge markets, and Alaska could launch service to them, but partnerships are lacking
• To throw in a wild card, I don’t think Madrid is out of the question either — Spain is a hot destination, and Madrid is an Iberia hub that Alaska could get access to without major slot issues

Personally, I’m putting my money on Rome, for at least a summer seasonal service. There isn’t currently nonstop service from Seattle to Rome, and Italy and Greece are sort of the “it” spots in Europe right now, for American tourists.

Oh, and there’s another reason to believe it might be Rome. Minicucci gave a speech ahead of the inaugural flight to Tokyo Narita, indicating that the decision about the European destination has already been made, and that work is being done internally to launch the service.

He reportedly joked that the team would tackle him if he revealed the destination, but also that his family will be very happy about this route. He’s of Italian heritage…

Bottom line

Alaska is expected to launch its first route to Europe in Q2 2026, out of its new global gateway in Seattle. The airline hasn’t yet revealed which destination will be served, but all signs point to it being London, Paris, or Rome. While London and Paris probably seem like the more obvious choices, I think Rome is most likely, based on the competitive landscape, plus rumors about what the CEO has reportedly commented…

What do you think Alaska’s first destination in Europe will be?