Alaska continues focus on transcontinental expansion to fuel 6% average annual growth

Alaska Air Group is furthering its stated goal of network diversification into longer-haul markets during 2012 with the introduction of five new US transcontinental flights along with new service to Hawaii, a market the carrier has been growing in intensely during the last few years. The expansion contributes to Alaska's calculation of an ideal growth rate of roughly 6% annually, and for the moment the company does not foresee a need to adjust those estimates.

So far this year Alaska has inaugurated mainline flights from its Seattle hub to Kansas City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In Aug-2012 the carrier is launching its highly anticipated route from its Portland, Oregon hub to Washing National followed by new service from Seattle to San Antonio, Texas in September and the debut of its San Diego-Orlando service in October. Changes in Alaska's Hawaiian network include new flights from Portland to Kauai and expanded service from San Jose to Kauai and Kona to daily from three-to-four times per week.