Somewhere in a Seattle gate area, a traveler with a rolled-up map of the Inside Passage stares at the departure board and wonders which airline actually goes where in Alaska. The answer starts with Alaska Airlines, which is headquartered just outside Seattle, runs a hub in Anchorage and serves Sitka all year. Smaller carriers and a few ID rules fill in the rest of the picture.
Which Alaska cities does Alaska Airlines serve?
Alaska Airlines serves Anchorage, where it keeps one of its hubs, and Sitka, where it operates air service year-round. The airline began its life in Anchorage as McGee Airways, whose first service linked Anchorage and Bristol Bay, and in the 1940s its headquarters were still in that city. Today the company is based in SeaTac, Washington, but the Alaska roots show in the way the network is built around the West Coast and the state.
For a trip planner, that means the two cities are the clearest anchors. Anchorage works as the door to the rest of the state, and Sitka is a stop on its own terms. Other Alaska towns have airports with their own character, described below, but a place belongs on your Alaska Airlines list only when the airline’s service there is confirmed.
Anchorage: the hub
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport sits on West International Airport Road, and it is the airport where Alaska Airlines has a hub inside the state. The same airport is the primary hub of Ravn Alaska, the carrier that specialized in small communities, so this is where the big network and the small-town network meet.
If your plan has you landing in Anchorage and moving on, the airport is the place where connections are made rather than a place to rush through.
Sitka: year-round service
Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport is named after a former mayor of the town and has a single terminal with a jetway. Alaska Airlines operates the air service there year-round. The single paved runway runs along a causeway that juts off Japonski Island, so the approach and the departure both happen with water on either side.
The airport is small in scale, and the old figures show it. Scheduled commercial flights made up only a small slice of its aircraft operations, with air taxis and general aviation making up most of the rest. That mix is typical of a town where small planes are part of daily life.
Other Alaska airports and what is on the ground
Ketchikan International Airport opened in August 1973, and as well as its paved runway it has a water runway for seaplanes, a reminder of how much travel in the region happens by float plane. Fairbanks International Airport stays open around the clock, and its screening checkpoints open two hours before the first flight each day, holidays included. Juneau International Airport has the EVAR and Airport Dike Trail running beside it, which is open.
| Airport | Elevation (feet) | Asphalt runway (feet) |
|---|---|---|
| Ketchikan International | 92 | 7,500 by 150 |
| Sitka Rocky Gutierrez | 26 | 7,200 by 150 |
Each of these airports has its own habits, so treat any airline’s service to one of them as a separate question from the airport’s existence.
Which airports in the Lower 48 connect to Alaska?
The Lower 48 side of the network is built around Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, the primary hub of Alaska Airlines, with further hubs in Los Angeles, Portland (Oregon), San Diego and San Francisco. The airline focuses on linking West Coast cities to over 100 destinations in the contiguous United States, North America, Asia, Oceania and Europe, with Alaska part of that web.
| Hub | Place |
|---|---|
| Seattle–Tacoma International (primary) | Seattle area, Washington |
| Ted Stevens Anchorage International | Anchorage, Alaska |
| Los Angeles | California |
| Portland | Oregon |
| San Diego | California |
| San Francisco | California |
Seattle as the gateway
Seattle–Tacoma is both the primary hub and the neighbor of the airline’s headquarters in SeaTac. For many travelers heading north, this is the airport where a trip changes gears: you arrive from somewhere else in the country and board a flight toward Alaska. Because the hub is the center of the network, it is the natural place to look first when you build an itinerary.
The airline’s reach beyond the mainland, to Asia, Oceania and Europe, means that an Alaska trip can be tacked onto a longer journey as well. An international traveler can think of Seattle as a first stop on the way north.
California and Oregon hubs
Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco are hubs in California, and Portland is the hub in Oregon. Together with Seattle they make the airline a West Coast carrier first and foremost. A traveler starting in any of these cities begins at a hub, which often makes the first leg simpler to plan than starting from a place outside the network.
The airline belongs to Oneworld, the third-largest airline alliance in the world, and its frequent-flyer program is called Atmos Rewards. Travelers who already collect miles on a partner airline may find that useful when matching a flight to a trip.
A little history behind the map
The airline was founded on April 14, 1932, as McGee Airways, and commenced operations on June 6, 1944. That long history explains why a company now based near Seattle still has a hub in Anchorage and a year-round presence in Sitka. The map today is the descendant of a service that began with a single link between Anchorage and Bristol Bay.
What else flies to Alaska?
Besides Alaska Airlines, the carrier most tied to small Alaska communities is Ravn Alaska, an Anchorage airline whose primary hub was Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Its story is one of growth, pauses and restarts, so it is useful to read it as history rather than as a current timetable.
Ravn Alaska and the small communities
Ravn Alaska traces its roots to June 20, 1948, when Economy Helicopters was founded, and its headquarters were on Old International Airport Road in Anchorage. In May 1983, scheduled passenger service began with Convair planes serving Valdez, Kenai, Kodiak, Cordova and Homer. Twin Otter aircraft based in Bethel served many small surrounding communities.
The picture is one of a regional airline built for towns that a larger jet network does not reach. For a traveler, that explains why Anchorage matters twice: it is where the big airline connects and where the small-community airline began its flights.
The 2020 restart
On November 13, 2020, Ravn Alaska resumed service to Dutch Harbor (Unalaska), Homer, Kenai, Sand Point and Valdez using public charters managed by Ravn Travel, with each market served four days a week from Anchorage. Then, on November 30, 2020, the airline received scheduled route authority from the U.S. Department of Transportation. It resumed scheduled flights to and from Anchorage, Dutch Harbor (Unalaska), Homer, Kenai, Kodiak and Sand Point.
These were the towns on the restarted map, and they show the kind of places a regional carrier connects. They are written here as history, and a past schedule is not today’s.
The 2024 layoffs
On February 23, 2024, CEO Rob McKinney announced that 130 employees had been laid off, citing inflation, labor shortages and unexpected competition on some routes. Because of that and the fact that Ravn Alaska is described in the past tense, a traveler should not build a plan on it without confirming that a flight exists for the dates. What remains certain is the shape of the system: a large West Coast airline with hubs in Anchorage and Seattle, and a smaller airline that grew up to reach the towns the big one does not.
Good to know before you go
Adults 18 and older must show valid identification at the airport checkpoint in order to fly, and REAL ID enforcement began on May 7, 2025. A temporary driver’s license is not an acceptable form of identification, and the list of acceptable IDs can change without notice. Fairbanks recommends arriving at least two hours before departure, and it asks people not to enter the terminals unless they are assisting someone who needs help.
| Fee | Amount | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| TSA ConfirmID | $45 | Travelers without an acceptable form of ID |
Sources
- Wikipedia, Alaska Airlines (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines), checked October 11, 2026
- Wikipedia, Ravn Alaska (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravn_Alaska), checked October 11, 2026
- Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (https://www.ancairport.com/), checked October 11, 2026
- Fairbanks International Airport (https://www.dot.alaska.gov/faiiap/), checked October 11, 2026
- Juneau International Airport (https://juneau.org/airport), checked October 11, 2026
- Wikipedia, Ketchikan International Airport (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchikan_International_Airport), checked October 11, 2026
- Wikipedia, Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitka_Rocky_Gutierrez_Airport), checked October 11, 2026
- Transportation Security Administration, REAL ID (https://www.tsa.gov/real-id), checked October 11, 2026
- Transportation Security Administration, acceptable identification (https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification), checked October 11, 2026