Alaska Airlines is pushing ahead with its plan to turn Seattle into an intercontinental hub, and the next two destinations are Kansai (Osaka) and Papeete in Tahiti. Both routes will be flown with Airbus A330s inherited from Hawaiian Airlines, the carrier Alaska merged with.
Osaka comes first, starting 14 May 2027 with four flights a week. Departure from Seattle is at 12:10 p.m., landing in Kansai at 4 p.m. the following day, with the return leaving Osaka at 6 p.m. Tahiti follows on 11 June 2027, three times weekly: a late-night 11:55 p.m. departure arrives in Papeete at 7:20 a.m., ideal for onward connections to Bora Bora or Moorea, while the 5 p.m. return back into Seattle at 6 a.m. keeps same-day connections workable.
The Tahiti route carries some baggage. Air Tahiti Nui launched the same Seattle service in 2022, partly with Alaska's support, but by 2024 it was losing roughly $16 million a year on the route. A study recommended dropping it, and the airline suspends the flight from 31 January 2026. Alaska is stepping into a market its own partner just abandoned. On the plus side, Alaska now controls the schedules, fares and connecting feed, keeps the full itinerary revenue, and Hawaiian already flies to Tahiti, so the operation isn't from scratch.
Osaka is arguably the stronger bet, and it hinges on Alaska joining the American Airlines–Japan Airlines transpacific joint venture. That would give Japan Airlines a financial incentive to sell Alaska's Kansai flight, bringing Japanese corporate customers and distribution Alaska can't build alone. Kansai has historically been a soft route — Delta dropped Seattle–Osaka before the pandemic, and award seats there were famously easy to find. Expect a mostly leisure and Kansai-region market rather than a Tokyo-style connector.
Travellers should know the hardware: Hawaiian's A330s seat 278 passengers with just 18 fully flat business seats in a 2-2-2 layout. Couples get a decent setup, but window passengers have no direct aisle access, and there's no sign of new cabins before these routes launch. Free Starlink Wi-Fi is already fitted, a genuine perk for a nine-hour-plus flight.
Some observers think the picks are underwhelming — Alaska has promised at least 15 intercontinental destinations from Seattle by 2030, and critics argue Fiji, Manila, Sydney or Madrid would offer bigger upside. Still, for holidaymakers, the practical takeaway is real: new nonstops to Japan's second city and a revived Tahiti link, both bookable with points across Alaska's expanding network, and both timed so you can connect onward without an overnight.
