Hawaii’s nonstop map just moved further inland. Alaska Airlines is putting Honolulu flights into two cities that have always fed Hawaii travelers through Seattle or Portland, and the schedules depict two different levels of route confidence from the start.
Boise gets daily service beginning December 17. Spokane gets one flight a week beginning December 19. Boise is already available for purchase, even though Alaska has issued no press release we’ve seen, and has not explained why one interior-West market gets a full daily schedule while the other gets a single weekly test. So we’ll update that information as we learn more.
These are the first flights to Hawaii from both cities on Alaska/Hawaiian.
When Alaska laid out 13 Hawaii routes in October 2025, we saw that package as a network completion project rather than growth. The airline was connecting all four major Hawaiian Islands with each of its five principal West Coast gateways, filling gaps within a route map built around familiar West Coast hubs.
Allegiant Air, however, operated nonstop Honolulu service from both Boise and Spokane, each once weekly, launching in February 2013 and ending in October 2017 when Allegiant retired its Boeing 757 fleet and exited Hawaii entirely. Beat of Hawaii covered the ending in Final Goodbye to Allegiant Air Hawaii.
Other than that, Hawaiian Airlines has long had the Honolulu operation but not Alaska’s position across the interior of the Pacific Northwest. Alaska had the Boise and Spokane passengers but sent them through Seattle or Portland before they crossed the Pacific to the islands.
The combined airline now reflects both sides of that journey. It has a local customer base in Boise and Spokane, along with the Honolulu operation needed to serve those customers directly on Oahu and beyond.
Daily to Boise, once a week to Spokane.
The tentative schedules show Boise to Honolulu operating once daily beginning December 17. Spokane to Honolulu begins December 19 with one flight each week.
That 7-to-1 gap shows Alaska is not approaching the two cities identically, with Boise receiving a schedule travelers can use any day of the week. We have not seen yet how long either route will operate, and no confirmed end date is available for Boise or Spokane. We believe both routes will be seasonal, as we are unable to find flights beyond April.
What Alaska is already selling.
The nonstop to Boise is now available in Alaska’s booking engine. For a January itinerary we confirmed, flight AS 369 departs Boise at 10:20 a.m. and arrives in Honolulu at 2:20 p.m., with a listed nonstop flying time of 7 hours.
The return flight, AS 368, departs Honolulu at 12:42 p.m. and arrives in Boise at 9:45 p.m., after 6 hours and 3 minutes. Those are winter schedule times, before mainland Daylight Saving Time begins on March 8. After Boise moves to Daylight Saving Time, the Honolulu departure shifts to 11:42 a.m. while the Boise arrival remains at 9:45 p.m.
Why Boise and Spokane, and not somewhere bigger.
Larger mainland metropolitan areas still lack nonstop Honolulu service, but Boise and Spokane sit inside a region where the airline already carries both local and island-bound passengers and has established loyalty and distribution.
Alaska can see how many travelers from both cities currently connect through Seattle and Portland on their way to Hawaii. It has access to that demand and the business opportunity at hand.
Both routes land only in Honolulu.
These flights remove the mainland connection only for travelers whose destination is Honolulu. Anyone continuing to Maui, Kauai, or Hawaii Island still needs another flight after arriving at HNL, making the benefit less clear.
A Boise traveler heading to Kauai might currently connect in Seattle, then fly directly to Lihue. The new Honolulu nonstop offers a different itinerary, with the long Pacific segment beginning at home but the connection moved to Honolulu. Nonetheless, passengers heading to Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island will continue to require connections, and the benefit may depend partly on pricing.
What this means for Seattle and Portland connections.
Seattle and Portland remain central to Alaska’s Hawaii network. Spokane travelers will still rely on those hubs six days a week, and Boise travelers headed beyond Oahu could actually find mainland connections more practical than changing planes in Honolulu.
But the benefit that’s clear is that these nonstops let Alaska keep Boise-to-Honolulu passengers on a single flight instead of exposing the itinerary to a missed connection or a delay at one of its busiest hubs. Spokane’s weekly service tests the same theory but with far less capacity.
For readers in Boise and Spokane, would you take the nonstop over connecting through Seattle or Portland, even if the schedule were less convenient? For Hawaii residents, what do you make of interior-West cities receiving direct access to Honolulu while anyone headed beyond Oahu still needs another flight?
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
Some of the most meaningful parts of Hawaii are the ones visitors walk right past without knowing they are there. We’ve spent nearly 20 years finding them firsthand for BOH as full-time Hawaii residents reporting on travel, culture, and island life, and telling you what they mean for your trip. Join us →
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
Good on them for this expansion…they are making a mistake by not branding it as HA. HA has always been and always will be a marketing advantage over any other airline brand serving Hawaii.
As a Pacific Northwest resident for 38 years I can understand why Boise would get the more full schedule of flights but Spokane only once/week. The rate of growth in Boise has been larger than Spokane. Also, much of that growth has come from West Coast cities that are right on the Coast and are people who routinely traveled to Hawaii nonstop from cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, etc. I would agree that Alaska would probably a greater need in Boise over Spokane.