Alaska Airlines will connect Seattle with Rome beginning next May. The service will be the first between Seattle and Rome, and Alaska's first route to Europe.
Alaska intends to serve the route four times per week with a three-cabin Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. Dreamliners are currently part of the Hawaiian Airlines fleet only, but the company expects to receive a joint operating certificate prior to next May, which would allow those planes to be operated by Alaska Airlines.
A precise launch date has not yet been announced. Tickets are expected to go on sale at some point this fall.
Rome is the third long-haul route Alaska Air Group has announced from Seattle since revealing plans late last year to turn its Pacific Northwest base into a transoceanic hub. In total, Alaska Air Group plans to serve at least a dozen overseas destinations with widebody aircraft from Seattle by 2030.
Hawaiian Airlines service from Seattle to Tokyo began in May and Hawaiian flights from Seattle to Seoul will begin Sept. 12.