Alaska Airlines is adding a winter link between Southern California and northwest Montana. Schedule filings reported by AeroRoutes on August 19, 2026 show the carrier plans to operate nonstop San Diego β Kalispell service in the first quarter of 2027, marking the first time the airline has offered the route during the winter season.
The service is filed from January 9, 2027 through February 6, 2027 on a weekly basis, operated by Horizon Air using Embraer E175 aircraft.
The filed schedule
As loaded, AS2128 departs San Diego at 08:00 and arrives at Glacier Park International Airport, Kalispell, at 12:07. The return, AS2127, leaves Kalispell at 12:47 and lands back in San Diego at 14:53. Both flights are filed with the E75 equipment code and operate on Saturdays only across the five-week window.
The timings are built around the destination rather than around connections. A morning departure from San Diego puts arriving passengers into Kalispell around lunchtime, and the early-afternoon return gets travellers home the same day at the end of the following week β a classic Saturday-to-Saturday pattern for a leisure market.
A season, not a network change
Kalispell is the gateway to Glacier National Park and to the ski terrain of the Flathead Valley, and it has historically been a summer-weighted airport for most carriers serving it. A January to early-February window points squarely at winter sports demand rather than at park traffic, and the single weekly frequency is sized accordingly.
Adding a route for five Saturdays is a low-risk way for an airline to test whether a seasonal market exists. If loads justify it, the window can be widened or the frequency increased in later years. If they do not, nothing structural has to be unwound.
Why the E175 makes sense here
The Embraer E175 is Horizon Air's workhorse regional jet and is well suited to exactly this kind of flying: a route with real demand but not enough of it to fill a mainline narrowbody, into an airport where winter operations and modest passenger volumes favour a smaller aircraft. Alaska has leaned on the type extensively to open and sustain thinner markets across the western United States.
Operating the sector under the Alaska brand also means the flight sits inside the airline's loyalty and connection ecosystem, so passengers reach it through the same booking and mileage channels as any mainline service.
Subject to change
As with all schedule filings, the plan reflects what is currently loaded rather than a finalised commitment, and seasonal services in particular are often adjusted as the on-sale period progresses. For now, the filing gives skiers and winter visitors in Southern California a same-day option into the Flathead Valley for the first time outside the warmer months.
Sources: AeroRoutes. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Daniel Okafor.
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