Alaska Airlines plans to grow seats at Seattle’s Paine Field (PAE) by about 50 percent through summer 2027, Airline Geeks reported on September 24, 2026, matching the carrier’s own newsroom release. The centerpiece is new twice-daily nonstop service between Everett and San Jose, California, starting April 14, 2027, on Horizon Air Embraer 175s. Tickets are already on sale at alaskaair.com.
Alaska will also thicken four existing Paine Field routes. Los Angeles and Portland grow to twice daily, with the Los Angeles flights moving onto larger mainline Boeing 737 aircraft. San Francisco and San Diego see more seats as well, giving Snohomish County and North Seattle travelers denser West Coast options without driving to Seattle-Tacoma International.
“Paine Field is an important part of our Puget Sound network, giving guests a simpler, more convenient way to access Alaska’s West Coast flying,” Andrew Harrison, Alaska’s senior vice president and chief commercial officer, said in the airline release. The carrier already serves Honolulu, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Santa Ana, and Palm Springs from PAE alongside the routes now being boosted.
Paine Field has long been Alaska’s secondary Seattle-area door, aimed at travelers who live north of the metro core. Doubling LAX and PDX to two daily flights and adding SJC twice daily turns that door into something closer to a mini West Coast spoke system. Horizon’s E175 on San Jose keeps gauge matched to a business-heavy Bay Area market, while 737s on Los Angeles chase leisure and visiting-friends traffic that fills a larger cabin.
Competitive pressure around Puget Sound remains intense. Delta and United still concentrate most Seattle long-haul and hub flying at SEA, and Alaska’s own Sea-Tac schedule dwarfs PAE. The bet is that drive-time savings and a smaller terminal experience will keep local share even as SEA stays the region’s primary gateway. San Jose specifically gives Alaska another Silicon Valley nonstop from the north side without forcing a transfer at SEA.
As of Alaska’s September 2026 newsroom post and Airline Geeks’ September 24 write-up, the hard dates are: PAE–SJC twice daily from April 14, 2027 on Horizon E175; LAX and PDX to two daily; and added capacity on SFO and SAN, with LAX on larger 737 metal. Source reporting: Alaska Airlines newsroom; Airline Geeks, September 24, 2026.
For travelers in Everett, Lynnwood, and the northern suburbs, the practical change is more morning and evening choices on core California and Oregon city pairs. For Alaska, it is another step in defending its West Coast franchise with secondary-airport density rather than only SEA bank expansions.
Fleet mix on the growth package is split on purpose: regional E175 for San Jose frequency, mainline 737 for Los Angeles gauge. That split should show up clearly in summer 2027 seat maps once the April San Jose launch and the LAX upgauge both settle into the published schedule.
Secondary airports only work when frequencies are honest. Twice-daily San Jose and a two-a-day Los Angeles bank give day-trip and overnight patterns that a single daily cannot. Portland’s second trip similarly supports same-day Northwest business without forcing a SEA connection. Those operational details are why Alaska framed the package as a 50 percent seat increase at PAE rather than a single headline route.
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