Nearly four months after Alaska Airlines touted that it would be launching non-stop long-haul flights from Seattle to London Heathrow, the flights are finally on sale, although the route very nearly didn’t happen.
Thankfully, Alaska Airlines had the backing of its oneworld alliance partners, American Airlines and British Airways, who came to the rescue and lent some of their precious take-off and landing slots at Heathrow to help bring Alaska Airlines to London.
Alaska Airlines finally puts London flights on sale
Back in August, Alaska Airlines first touted that it was going to fly non-stop long-haul between its home hub in Seattle and London Heathrow, with plans to start the route in Spring 2026.
The new route is part of an incredibly ambitious drive by Alaska Airlines to break into the long-haul international market for the first time in its history, and the first destinations – Rome, Reykjavik, and London Heathrow – were carefully picked.
Despite a worrying delay in putting the flights on sale, we now have confirmation from Alaska Airlines that its inaugural year-round daily service from Seattle-Tacoma to London Heathrow will begin on May 21, 2026.
- The outbound service from Seattle will operate as flight AS-100, departing SEA at 9:40 pm and arriving in London at 3:05 pm the following day.
- The return service from London will operate as flight AS-101, departing LHR at 5 pm and arriving in Seattle at 6:50 pm the same day.
All flights will be operated on Alaska’s new fleet of Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, which will feature its new Aurora Borealis-inspired international livery.
Like other oneworld alliance carriers, Alaska Airlines will operate its flights from Heathrow out of Terminal 3. That means that the airline won’t have its own premium lounge at Heathrow, elite frequent flyers and those sitting in the premium cabin will be able to make use of any of the other oneworld alliance lounges in Terminal 3.
Why did it take so long for the flights to go on sale?
It seemed a little odd that it was taking so long for Alaska Airlines to put its London Heathrow on sale, but it came down to the fact that the route very nearly didn’t happen after regulators refused the airline permission to acquire takeoff and landing slots.
Like many capacity-constrained airports, Heathrow operates a slot system – airlines must own a pair of takeoff and landing slots for each flight they operate to Heathrow, but, as you can probably imagine, demand massively outstrips supply.
Alaska Airlines applied for a pair of takeoff and landing slots from the official slot coordination service, but, perhaps unsurprisingly for a newcomer, its first attempt at acquiring these precious slots didn’t pay off.
How did Alaska Airlines get the rights to fly to Heathrow?
As a result, Alaska Airlines had to delay putting its London flights on sale until it found a way to secure the necessary landing rights.
Late last week, however, it transpired that Alaska Airlines had struck a deal with American Airlines. The Fort Worth-based carrier and fellow oneworld member is leasing a pair of slots that it owns for Heathrow flights out to Alaska Airlines for the summer 2026 season.
Given that Alaska Airlines has already stated that it plans to operate the service year-round, it can likely be presumed that the carrier has already struck a deal to ensure that it can continue leasing a slot if further attempts to acquire a slot through the normal process aren’t successful.
On Tuesday, Alaska Airlines said the new service was also being facilitated with the help of British Airways, so it could be that BA is willing to lease one of its massive horde of slots to continue the service during the winter season.
Where’s next for Alaska Airlines?
Alaska Airlines plans to turn Seattle-Tacoma into an international gateway and has set its sights on operating to 12 intercontinental destinations from SEA by 2030.
Already flying from Seattle are services to Tokyo Narita, Japan, and Seoul Incheon, South Korea, using the Hawaiian Airlines brand, while Alaska-branded flights will commence next summer.
- Rome, Italy, is set to start on April 28, 2026, as a summer seasonal service.
- London Heathrow will begin on May 21, 2026, as a daily year-round service.
- Reykjavik, Iceland, is slated to start flying as a daily summer seasonal service from May 28, 2026.
Bottom line
Alaska Airlines has finally put its non-stop flights from Seattle to London Heathrow on sale. The service will commence on May 21, 2026, with a lot of assistance from American Airlines and British Airways.
