Alaska Airlines officially took off for London Heathrow on Thursday night, opening the carrier’s first-ever direct route between Seattle and the United Kingdom. The new year-round daily service leaves Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 9:40 p.m. and touches down in London at 3:05 p.m. the following day. If you are looking to book a European getaway, you now have another major option out of the Pacific Northwest.
The airline is flying the route using Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, which feature 300 seats and 34 lie-flat suites in business class. These wide-body jets joined the fleet following Alaska’s recent integration with Hawaiian Airlines. This launch puts Alaska in direct competition with established transatlantic carriers like Delta Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic, and British Airways for a corridor that sees hundreds of thousands of passengers a year.
Because Heathrow is famously tight on space, Alaska bypassed the usual queue by leasing landing slots from American Airlines, according to Simple Flying. American previously flew the Seattle-to-London route between 2021 and 2023. With airlines facing operational pressure globally, and executives warning that jet fuel shortages make summer airfare hikes inevitable, adding more competition to this popular transatlantic corridor is a welcome sight for travelers hunting for better prices.
Premium passengers have something else to look forward to back in Seattle. The airline announced it is building a 41,000-square-foot, two-level lounge at SEA to handle the influx of international flyers, though it is not expected to open until late 2027. The return flight from London leaves at 5:00 p.m. and arrives back in Seattle at 6:50 p.m. local time.
This London launch is part of a broader European push for the airline. It arrives just after their new Rome service started in April and right before a third transatlantic route to ReykjavÃk kicks off next week.