Travellers north of Seattle have lost their one shortcut to the islands. Alaska Airlines has quietly removed its Paine Field–Honolulu route from the winter schedule, scrapping the daily Boeing 737-900ER service that was set to return on December 17. It's the end of the first — and only — nonstop flight ever to link the Everett, Washington airport with Hawaii.
The route had an unusual life. Launched in November 2023 as a year-round daily service, it was Alaska's first new Honolulu route in over a decade and briefly made Paine Field the airline's eighth West Coast gateway to Hawaii. It then shifted to a seasonal winter pattern, last flying in April before pausing for summer. The numbers tell you why it won't be back: load factors slid from 78.5% in 2024 to 72.6% in the first months of 2026, well below the roughly 80% Alaska averages on its other Paine Field routes. Fares were tempting — an average one-way price of $308 from Everett versus $383 from Seattle-Tacoma, about 20% cheaper for nearly the same flight — but the cheaper seats didn't fill the plane.
It's also part of a pattern. Honolulu joins a list of Paine Field routes Alaska has cut in recent years, including Boise, Spokane, Anchorage and seasonal Tucson flights.
The silver lining for flyers: getting to Honolulu is still easy from the Seattle area. Alaska runs multiple daily nonstops from Seattle-Tacoma, now using a mix of 737s and the widebody jets it inherited through Hawaiian Airlines, and Delta flies the route too. The main trade-off is driving to Sea-Tac instead of the smaller, calmer Paine Field terminal — and paying roughly $75 more on average each way.
Meanwhile, Alaska is doubling down on Paine Field in other ways. Seats on the airport's network are set to grow 50% from this autumn into next summer, with San Jose returning in April 2027 after a six-year absence, twice-daily service to Los Angeles and Portland, and bigger aircraft on San Diego and San Francisco routes. Alaska remains the only commercial airline at the airport, so those routes now carry the full weight of its Everett ambitions — just without the long hop to Waikiki.
