Two inland Northwest cities are getting a rare treat this winter: nonstop flights to Honolulu, no connection required. Alaska Airlines will fly Boeing 737 MAX 8s from Boise daily starting December 17, and from Spokane weekly on Saturdays starting December 19, with both routes running through the peak winter-sun season (Boise until March 21, 2027; Spokane until April 17).
These are proper long hauls for a narrowbody jet — about 2,831 miles from Boise and 2,877 miles from Spokane, with block times just over seven hours. The last time either city had a nonstop to Hawaii was more than a decade ago, when Allegiant tried the routes with 757s in 2013 before pulling the plug on its whole Hawaii experiment by 2017. What is different now is the aircraft: Alaska's MAX 8 seats just 161 passengers but can fly roughly 4,000 miles, making it economical on routes that would never fill a widebody.
The demand is clearly there. Nearly 44,000 round-trip passengers flew between Spokane and Honolulu in the year to June 2026, with around 42,000 between Boise and Honolulu — all of them connecting somewhere along the way, usually through Seattle. It is a bit curious that Boise gets daily service while Spokane starts weekly despite near-identical volumes, but Alaska sees both as underserved Hawaii markets. The airline now moves more passengers to Hawaii than anyone else — a 42% market share, with around 60 mainland-Hawaii departures a day planned this winter.
For travellers, the maths is simple. A seven-hour single-aisle flight is not glamorous, but it beats a connection onto a widebody in Seattle if you live near Boise or Spokane. Both routes feed onward flights to the neighbour islands, and Alaska has been adding premium seating across its 737 fleet, which matters on a flight this long.
The new routes slot in at sixth and seventh on the list of Alaska's longest MAX 8 flights, behind the likes of Seattle-Reykjavík (the longest, at 7h 35m), Anchorage-New York JFK and Seattle-Liberia in Costa Rica. And there is more coming: the FAA just certified the Boeing 737 MAX 10, with Alaska expecting its first delivery in mid-2027, including at least 25 aircraft fitted with new Aurora lie-flat business suites.
If you are based in the inland Northwest and have been pricing out winter trips to Hawaii via connections, this changes the equation. Daily service from Boise gives genuine flexibility; Spokane flyers will want to lock in Saturdays early, since it is one weekly rotation through mid-April.
