North Americans will have close to 500,000 fewer seats with Alaska Airlines this coming winter as the Seattle-based airline looks to shave more than 3,000 flights from its January network. The data retrieved from Cirium looks scarce, as the carrier will reduce multiple services to airports across the continent.

While the most significant loss of services will be seen between Paine Field (PAE) and San Francisco (SFO), reducing 72 weekly services will axe over 5,400 seats from the airline's network. In comparison, the most significant gap in seat numbers will be left between Seattle Tacoma (SEA) and Sacramento Airport (SMF), where a reduction of 48 weekly services represents over 12,700 seats removed from Alaska's books.

Photo: Angel DiBilio | Shutterstock

48 services a popular reduction

Deciphering the Cirium data, it is clear that the airline looks to shave up to 6-7 flights a day between underperforming centers. Between multiple centers, Alaska Airlines will reduce up to 48 weekly services between these centers:

• Los Angeles to Las Vegas
• San Francisco to New York JFK and Spokane
• Seattle to Atlanta, Eugene, New York JFK, Oakland, Portland, and Sacramento

The reduction of services on the routes above represents a loss of almost 140,00 weekly seats for the airline and the city pairs it serves.

Photo: Ian Dewar Photography | Shutterstock

Next on the chopping block, losing over 30 services a week will be the airline's Los Angeles to Washington Dulles service, where 37 fewer flights will take off in each direction, representing a loss of 6,327 seats each way and heading to the Great North, where Anchorage to King Salmon (AKN) appears to be losing 34 services each course, a loss of almost 10,000 seats combined.

A strong Q2

As reported by Simple Flying, Alaska Air Group, the parent company for both Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, reported a $240 million profit for Q2, the highest quarterly total recorded in its history.

For Q2 2022, the Alaska Air Group’s total earnings topped $139 million. This represented a $240 million profit for Q2 2023, with a more than $100 million profit increase. Among the company's net income, excluding special items and mark-to-market fuel hedge accounting adjustments, the airline had reported a profit of $387 million which was still an improvement from 2022. According to Alaska Air Group, the generated adjusted pre-tax margins of 18.3% were recorded, a 250-basis point increase over Q2 in 2019.

Photo: Joe Kunzler | Simple Flying

During the company's second quarter, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air received new aircraft, including eight new Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft that joined the Alaska mainline fleet and six new Embraer E175 regional jets at Horizon Air. With these additions, Alaska’s fleet has grown to 310 aircraft and 39 at Horizon. Additionally, WiFi installation of the Intelsat satellite has been completed across the mainline fleet.