Alaska Airlines is bringing back a route with real aviation history: a nonstop from Anchorage to Tokyo, the first-ever flight to Japan from its namesake state. Starting 13 May 2027, the Oneworld carrier will fly daily between Ted Stevens Anchorage International (ANC) and Tokyo Narita (NRT) through 7 September, then settle into a three-times-weekly winter schedule from January 2028.
The twist is the aircraft. Rather than a wide-body jet, Alaska will use its Boeing 737 MAX 8, a single-aisle plane configured for domestic flying: 16 first-class recliners, 36 extra-legroom seats and 115 standard economy seats. That means no lie-flat business class on a route of 3,433 miles and roughly eight hours in the air. Alaska's president Shane Tackett has defended the choice, noting the MAX 8 handles long sectors well — this won't even crack the ten longest MAX 8 routes worldwide, and Alaska's own Seattle-Reykjavik flight is longer.
The Tokyo flight anchors a four-route expansion from Anchorage. Three seasonal summer routes begin 12 June 2027, all Saturday-only through 7 August: Austin, Dallas Fort Worth and Nashville. Alaska faces minimal competition — Austin and Nashville are currently unserved from ANC, and American, its partner, is the only carrier on Dallas. The Tokyo route is also new, though it wasn't always empty: before long-range jets arrived, airlines including Air France, British Airways, JAL, KLM and SAS used Anchorage as a fuel stop en route to Japan until the early 1990s, when the Boeing 747-400 made nonstop flights possible.
Japan is clearly Alaska's priority in Asia. It launched Seattle-Tokyo Narita in 2025, has announced Seattle-Osaka Kansai service starting next May, and inherited Japanese routes from Hawaiian Airlines after their 2024 merger. A pending joint venture with American and JAL, if regulators approve it, could open coordinated codes and fares across the Pacific. For travellers in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, that means more ways to reach Japan without backtracking through a mega-hub — and the Anchorage flight doubles as a rare opportunity to pair an Alaskan summer trip with a Tokyo city break on one ticket.
