Alaska Airlines cuts three Boise flights for summer. Other carriers begin new routes soon

The Boise Airport’s leading air carrier is taking a break from the craps table.

Alaska Airlines, which flies nonstop to half of the airport’s 26 destinations, has halted its route to Las Vegas for the summer. Alaska is scheduled to bring back its Boise to Sin City service with four flights per week starting Oct. 3.

The Seattle-based airline started daily flights to Las Vegas in June 2022. It most recently offered the flight three times a week before suspending service last week, airline spokesperson Ray Lane said in an email to the Idaho Statesman.

The flight is the third that Alaska has dropped for the summer out of Boise. The airline’s moves are a strategic reallocation, Lane said, with plans to actually boost its number of total seats available in Boise by 8% compared to this same time last year through more frequency of other existing routes.

Alaska hit pause last week on its nonstop flight between Boise and Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport — the airport’s only route to North Idaho — with limited flights returning in late August. The route then transitions to daily service starting Oct. 1. In addition, Alaska announced last fall that it suspended its summer flight between Boise and Austin, Texas.

At the time, the airline also said it would cut nonstop service to and from Chicago O’Hare International Airport, with no plans for its return. United Airlines continues to fly nonstop year-round between Boise and Chicago.

“We’re increasing flying to where Boiseans want to fly in the summer: Southern California and the Pacific Northwest,” Lane said. “(Vegas) will return in the fall, as well as the second Phoenix and Sacramento flights, and a third (Los Angeles) flight.”

In the interim, passengers in and around the Treasure Valley still looking to get to Vegas on a nonstop flight can do so aboard Southwest Airlines, Allegiant Air and Spirit Airlines. Spirit launched service at the Boise Airport with its daily flight to and from Las Vegas in August 2022, about two months after Alaska began the route.

Southwest, which offers the second-most nonstop flights in Boise, is set to add two more next month.

On June 4, the airline will start daily flights to Southern California’s Hollywood Burbank Airport, competing with Alaska and Avelo Airlines for the route. Then, on June 8, Southwest will reintroduce service for the summer to Dallas Love Field, where it is headquartered, with once-weekly flights.

Sun Country Airlines, a low-cost carrier based in Minneapolis, also launches service in Boise starting June 19. It will offer twice-weekly flights for the summer, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, through late August. Delta Air Lines already flies the same route twice each day between Boise and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Avelo earlier this month also added its second nonstop route in Boise. It introduced direct service to Sonoma County in Northern California’s wine country on May 3, and announced Monday that passengers on their return trip to Boise can now check a case of wine at no charge.