Alaska Airlines answers Delta’s aggression in Seattle with a push from Delta’s Salt Lake City hub

After remaining relatively quiet on Delta's bold moves into key markets from its Seattle hub, Alaska Air Group has opted to try competing elsewhere with Delta through the introduction of four new markets from Delta's Salt Lake City in Jun-2014.

The move by Alaska is interesting given it has served Salt Lake City for little more than a year after introducing service to Seattle in Apr-2013. While it takes varying timeframes for routes to reach a certain level of maturity, Alaska must be encouraged by the early returns on its performance in Salt Lake City, and feels comfortable expanding into markets where it has ample brand recognition, and in some cases, a solid position of strength.

Even as Alaska's decision to add service from Salt Lake City seems to be a response to Delta's latest aggressive moves in Seattle, the expansion also reflects Alaska's years-long strategy to diversify its route network outside the US Pacific Northwest into more transcontinental and mid-continental markets.