Alaska Airlines has announced four new routes from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) for the summer 2027 season, including a direct service to Tokyo-Narita that remains subject to government approval. The Tokyo service is scheduled to operate daily from May 13 to September 7, 2027, and to resume in January 2028 with three flights a week after a three-month suspension. The transpacific flight from Alaska to Japan takes about 8 hours and 15 minutes and crosses the International Date Line.
The other three seasonal routes link Anchorage with Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Nashville. The Tokyo service will be operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 8, which the report describes as the only single-aisle service between the United States and Japan and the first scheduled nonstop service between Alaska and Japan in many years. Alaska's 737 MAX 8 fleet has two three-class configurations, with 159 and 161 seats.
Anchorage was once a stopover point for flights linking Japan with the U.S. mainland and Europe, but its importance declined sharply in the 1990s as Siberian airspace opened to Western airlines and longer-range aircraft made an Alaskan stop unnecessary; that airspace closed again in 2022. Alaska also operates a daily Boeing 787-9 service from Seattle-Tacoma to Tokyo-Narita, and will begin an Osaka-Kansai service on May 14, 2027, using an Airbus A330 provided by its subsidiary Hawaiian Airlines.