Alaska Airlines to scrap two Washington Dulles routes amid government travel slump

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Alaska Airlines will cease its San Francisco-Chicago O'Hare service on Aug. 19. It has struggled to compete against United and American.
Alaska Airlines will cease its San Francisco-Chicago O'Hare service on Aug. 19. It has struggled to compete against United and American. Photo Credit: Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines is pulling back from Washington Dulles. The airline will suspend service on two of its four Dulles routes once the summer travel season winds down.

"We've seen a recent decrease in demand on our routes between San Francisco-Washington Dulles and Los Angeles-Washington Dulles, potentially connected to economic uncertainty and a decrease in government-related travel," the airline said in an email. 

The last scheduled flight on both routes is Aug. 19. Service until then is daily. 

Alaska also flies daily to Washington Reagan National Airport from San Francisco and Los Angeles and will continue those routes. In addition, the carrier will continue flying between Dulles and both Seattle and San Diego. The Seattle flights operate three times per day, the San Diego flights twice daily. 

Alaska is cutting two other routes. Daily San Francisco-Chicago O'Hare flights will end Aug. 19. The carrier explained that it has struggled to compete in that market against United and American, both of which operate numerous frequencies per day. 

Alaska also will suspend twice-weekly flights between Los Angeles and Nassau, Bahamas on Aug. 17. That route and Seattle-Nassau launched in December 2023 and were the first the airline had ever operated to the Bahamas. Alaska's seasonal Seattle-Nassau winter service has already wrapped up for the year.

"For the past year and a half, we've tried a variety of strategies to make the route financially successful from both Seattle and LAX," the carrier said. 

JetBlue also initiated a route from Los Angeles to Nassau in December 2023, but ended it last September. 

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