Alaska Airlines is stepping up pressure on Southwest Airlines and other major US airlines with an increased network presence in San Diego.
The Seattle-headquartered airline said on 22 April that it plans to increase flights out of San Diego by 30% in coming months.
It plans to launch new routes to Chicago, Denver and Phoenix this year – each city receiving three daily flights from San Diego – at which point Alaska and subsidiary Hawaiian Airlines would offer nonstop flights to 44 destinations from the Southern California city.
Alaska say that is “the most of any airline”.
”We’re also significantly expanding the number of frequencies on some of our most popular routes, by 50% or more, to meet growing demand for our premium product,” Alaska says.
For example, Alaska is planning to step up frequencies on existing routes to Las Vegas, Sacramento and San Jose to six-times daily, with three daily flights to Salt Lake City.
On those routes, Alaska is competing most head-on with Southwest, which has been entrenched for years in San Diego – a popular beach destination and metropolitan area of more than 3 million people. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines also maintain strong presences there.
According to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Southwest maintained nearly 33% market share at San Diego International airport between February 2024 and January, while Alaska, American, Delta and United each held 12-13% slices of the market.
The highest-trafficked routes out of San Diego International during that period were to Denver, Las Vegas and San Francisco, according to BTS.
Though Southwest maintains a dominant position in San Diego, competitors have been targeting their customers in recent weeks, with Frontier Airlines making overt marketing pitches to Southwest loyalists and United chief Scott Kirby recently declaring victory in wrestling customers from Southwest.
Some of Southwest’s rivals say they see opportunity to earn market share since the carrier announced axing its longtime “bags fly free” policy, which was seen as a major aspect of its customer-retention strategy.
Alaska, meanwhile, is in the process of reinforcing its West Coast network – operating out of key hubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Portland and Seattle – and has in recent months operated its first transpacific flights thanks to Hawaiian’s long-haul fleet and hub in Honolulu.
Parent company Alaska Air Group is working to combine Alaska and Hawaiian under one air operator’s certificate, following its $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian, finalised in September 2024.
Alaska Air Group says that it is currently working to co-locate Alaska and Hawaiian’s customer-facing operations at Los Angeles International, John F Kennedy International, Phoenix Sky Harbor International airport and San Francisco International airports. That effort includes moving gates, ticket counters and other check-in infrastructure.
It plans to co-locate Alaska and Hawaiian’s operations in Sacramento, Salt Lake CIty and Las Vegas later this year.
