Alaska Airlines is launching nonstop flights from Seattle to London and to Reykjavik, Iceland, in May 2026.
The daily flight to London will operate year-round while the Reykjavik flight will be available during the “summer season,” when the days are long in Iceland, Alaska said in a news release Tuesday.
The two routes are part of Alaska’s ongoing expansion and its effort to become a global airline. Seattle is at the center of Alaska’s ambitions, with plans to launch at least 12 new intercontinental flights from its Seattle hub by 2030.
Alaska has announced five of those new destinations since it laid out the vision in December 2024: Tokyo, which launched in May; Seoul, South Korea, coming in September; Rome, Italy, slated for May 2026 and now London and Reykjavik planned for the same month.
For Alaska, the expansion is “not just flying an airplane to a new city that’s a long way away,” Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Harrison said in an interview ahead of the announcement. “This is at the heart of Alaska, to expand beyond our brand, beyond just the West Coast, beyond the national footprint to a global airline and premium airline.
Harrison said the airline has seen strong demand for travel from Seattle to Reykjavik, but called the new route to London “the crown jewel of our long-haul network to Europe.”
“This market really helps establish us as a true global gateway into Europe, as does Japan and Korea into Asia,” Harrison said.
On Tuesday, Alaska also unveiled a new exterior design for the Boeing 787 Dreamliners that will enable its global ambitions.
The design, also known as the plane’s livery, is inspired by the Aurora Borealis, with a palette of midnight blues and emerald greens and flowing aura lines.
It also includes a large horizontal stripe along the fuselage, a nod to Alaska’s classic liveries of the '70s and '80s, the company said.
Eric Edge, Alaska’s vice president of brand and marketing, said the design was meant to be modern, bold and unique in the industry while still sticking to Alaska’s brand. It represents an evolution of the company, rather than a new company altogether, he said.
The new livery will debut in January, with Alaska’s five Dreamliner planes updated by next spring.
Alaska’s global expansion kicked off last year when it acquired Hawaiian Airlines and, with it, a new fleet of widebody planes from Boeing and its European competitor Airbus that allow the airline to fly further than it could before. Before the acquisition, Alaska had primarily operated Boeing’s narrowbody 737 MAX.
With the acquisition and a new order for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, Alaska is preparing to house a fleet of 17 787 planes in Seattle and 24 Airbus A330s in Honolulu.
The A330 fleet will primarily fly to and from Hawaii, while the 787 fleet will be based in Seattle.
To accommodate the new fleet in Seattle, Alaska will grow its local pilot base, with plans to reach up to 600 pilots based in Seattle by 2030.
The newly announced Seattle to London flight will operate on a 787-9, Alaska said Tuesday. The flight to Reykjavik will operate on a 737 MAX 8, a version of the MAX plane that can fly further distances than other variants.
While updating the 787 design, the livery on Alaska’s other plane models will remain the same, including the Alaska Native on the airline’s narrowbody planes and Pualani on Hawaiian Airlines’ aircraft.
Alaska executives say the company’s global gateway vision is paying off so far. Its first new intercontinental route — Seattle to Tokyo — has booked roughly 80% of available seats, said Ryan St. John, Alaska’s vice president of finance, planning and investor relations, ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings call last month.
That compares to Alaska’s average booking of 84% of available seats, St. John said.
Marking the next step in its merger plan, the airline this month will introduce a new premium credit card and combined loyalty program for Alaska and Hawaiian frequent flyers.
It is still awaiting approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for a single operating certificate, merging the two airlines in the eyes of the regulator, and is negotiating joint collective bargaining agreements with the unionized workforce from both companies.
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