{"id":268422,"date":"2026-10-12T14:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T14:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/delta-and-alaskas-seattle-showdown-not-a-battle-ceo-says-the-points-guy\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T14:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T14:30:19","slug":"delta-and-alaskas-seattle-showdown-not-a-battle-ceo-says-the-points-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/delta-and-alaskas-seattle-showdown-not-a-battle-ceo-says-the-points-guy\/","title":{"rendered":"Delta and Alaska’s Seattle showdown not a ‘battle,’ CEO says – The Points Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Delta Air Lines says there’s room for two in Seattle, where it shares a hub with hometown carrier Alaska Airlines.<\/p>\n

“I wouldn’t suggest that there’s a battle for Seattle,” CEO Ed Bastian said, speaking Friday on the airline’s earnings call.<\/p>\n

But make no mistake: Delta and Alaska are competing aggressively for Seattle customers.<\/p>\n

And “battle” or not, that fight \u2014 or whatever you call it \u2014 is playing out on an increasingly global stage.<\/p>\n

2 hub carriers in Seattle<\/h2>\n

Alaska is far and away the biggest carrier at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). This year, it will operate roughly double the number of flights that Delta will fly from the airport, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.<\/p>\n

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KEVIN CARTER\/GETTY IMAGES<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Delta has a much more robust long-haul international footprint, boasting routes to a host of places Alaska doesn’t fly \u2014 from Shanghai to Taipei, Barcelona and Amsterdam.<\/p>\n

That’s not surprising, considering Alaska \u2014 until the last couple of years \u2014 had primarily operated as a domestic airline, with a heavily West Coast network.<\/p>\n

However, things are changing.<\/p>\n

Alaska has global ambitions<\/h2>\n

Two years after acquiring Hawaiian Airlines and a new fleet of long-haul planes<\/a><\/span>, Alaska is in the midst of a fast global expansion.<\/p>\n

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Next summer, the carrier will add to its fledgling European map with new service to Athens and Paris.<\/a><\/span> By the end of the decade, it expects to serve at least 15 long-haul destinations from Seattle.<\/p>\n

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SEAN CUDAHY\/THE POINTS GUY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alaska is also planning to compete more forcefully on transcontinental service by adding lie-flat suites on key domestic routes.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

And, it’s building a new, state-of-the-art club at SEA. That “Aurora Lounge”<\/a><\/span> will serve as its answer to Delta’s upscale facility that opened last year<\/a><\/span> \u2014 and won a TPG Award<\/a><\/span> for best new U.S. airline lounge in 2025.<\/p>\n

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Delta One Lounge at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). SEAN CUDAHY\/THE POINTS GUY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alaska isn’t shying away from its long-term goals in the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n

“By 2030, we expect to be the number one international carrier in Seattle,” chief commercial officer Andrew Harrison told investors last month.<\/p>\n

Delta happy to ‘cohabitate’ in Seattle<\/h2>\n

Despite Alaska’s international growth in Seattle, Delta is taking a cordial tone; asked about it Friday, Bastian called its Seattle rival’s moves “smart.”<\/p>\n

“Seattle’s a big and growing market. It’s certainly a market that is large enough for us and our principal competitor up there,” he said. “We don’t have to ‘own’ every market we fly in. I think you can cohabitate a bit.”<\/p>\n

It’s certainly a different tone than the one Delta has struck in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

In recent months, the carrier has boldly touted its place<\/a><\/span> as the “number one airline” at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) \u2014 a hub it shares with both American Airlines and United Airlines.<\/p>\n

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A banner on Delta’s website touts its leading position at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). DELTA AIR LINES<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now \u2014 that’s not to say Delta isn’t competing forcefully in Seattle.<\/p>\n

Just in the last week, Delta rolled out special flights discounts clearly targeted at Alaska-based members of its SkyMiles program.<\/p>\n

And last year, when Alaska announced London and Rome as its first two destinations in mainland Europe, Delta responded by adding its own route<\/a><\/span> to the Eternal City.<\/p>\n

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A Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-800 pushes back at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). SEAN CUDAHY\/THE POINTS GUY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the time, Alaska’s top network planner Kirsten Amrine told TPG that the carrier had expected moves like that from Delta.<\/p>\n

“But where we sit is, we’re the hometown carrier,” she said then. “Over time, as we have a larger international portfolio, we see the opportunity just to win back much of the travel that we’ve lost to Delta.”<\/p>\n

Not ‘frenemies’ … but not a ‘battle,’ either<\/h2>\n

Looking ahead, Pacific service is a key area both airlines hope to make gains.<\/p>\n

Alaska executives recently noted they see flights to Asia as the airline’s biggest international opportunity<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Delta sees the future similarly<\/a><\/span>, thanks to its duo of West Coast hubs \u2014 including Seattle.<\/p>\n

“No. 1 global carrier in Seattle \u2014 we’re going to keep continuing to build that,” chief commercial officer Joe Esposito told me in August. “We’ve got great launching platforms in the West to expand into Asia.”<\/p>\n

Long-term, consumers win when airlines compete. At SEA, this build-up by Alaska and Delta is producing more routes and better amenities. Time will tell what it means for fares.<\/p>\n

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CLINT HENDERSON\/THE POINTS GUY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Either way, it’s clear Seattlelites have two major airlines competing for a slice of their wallet.<\/p>\n

And for that reason, this Pacific Northwest “cohabitation” of two former “frenemies<\/a><\/span>” could ultimately be a good thing for travelers.<\/p>\n

Just don’t call it a “battle.”<\/p>\n

Related reading:<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Delta Air Lines says there’s room for two in Seattle, where it shares a hub with hometown carrier Alaska Airlines. “I wouldn’t suggest that there’s a battle for Seattle,” CEO Ed Bastian said, speaking Friday on the airline’s earnings call. But make no mistake: Delta and Alaska are competing aggressively for Seattle customers. And “battle” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":268423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-268422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}