Between March 2025 and February 2026, Alaska Airlines carried just over 3.5 million international passengers. According to the US Department of Transportation (DOT), traffic was up by 6.8% compared to the prior 12 months, which was influenced by Hawaiian flying from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) to Asia on its behalf. But because the number of available seats jumped by 11.2%, the seat load factor reduced to just 82.0%.

While not contained within the numbers mentioned above, Alaska began flying to Europe for the first time on April 28. Its initial route was from SEA to Rome. On May 21, the carrier took off from SEA to London Heathrow. Seven days later, it will fly from its primary hub to Iceland for the first time.

This Was Alaska’s International Route With The Lowest Load Factor

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DOT data was used to analyze Alaska’s entire international route network in the 12 months to February 2026. This process identified the oneworld member’s routes by load factor (technically, it’s seat factor), passenger traffic, and more. As usual, loads should not be considered in isolation, and it’s always critical to understand how they were achieved.

With only 52.6% of seats filled, the worst performing link in this sense was St. Louis to Puerto Vallarta. 2,622 round-trip passengers were carried in the examined period, with nearly one in two seats empty. That route, which covered 1,328 nautical miles (2,459 km) each way, was originally launched by Alaska in January 2025.

Cirium Diio data shows that flights operated through April last year. Despite the first year’s very poor performance, flights returned between January and March 2026. While approximately the same capacity was available year-over-year, the route returned earlier and finished earlier. Starting sooner in the year might have been a mistake, as the DOT shows that an unbelievably low 31.8% of seats were filled on its four round-trip services in January 2026. Predictably, no flights are scheduled for 2027. As such, Alaska’s very short-lived international experiment from Missouri has ended.

Alaska’s 2nd To 5th-Lowest International Results

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Markets with the second to fourth-lowest loads are summarized in the following table. None of them were from Alaska’s primary hub of SEA or its second-busiest facility at Portland International Airport (PDX). Indeed, the DOT shows that SEA’s average load was 82.7%, although it was reduced to 79.2% if the then-Hawaiian-operated services to Asia are included. In contrast, PDX’s average was 84.2%. As always, they’re just numbers. Unless the results are particularly poor, they should not be considered in isolation.

Three of the following four international routes have ended, which include the carrier’s first and only such service from Kansas City. The trio also had low traffic. This reflects the time focus of this article from March 2025 — passenger data was thus only for one or two months — along with low frequencies and short operating periods.

New York JFK Airport (JFK) to Puerto Vallarta is interesting. This was, of course, Alaska’s first international link from the Big Apple. It was one of seven thin routes to Mexico that Alaska launched in January last year. In JFK’s case, it began flying to the Mexican resort destination following JetBlue Airways’ final service in April 2024. Since the first flight in February 2022, JetBlue carried 154,501 passengers and filled a fairly low 75.3% of seats. While not a like-for-like comparison, that load was nine points higher than for Alaska.

Alaska’s International Routes With The 6th To 10th-Lowest Loads

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Alaska’s sixth-worst result in this sense was Sacramento to Los Cabos. The carrier previously served this market between 2017 and 2021. Having returned in January 2025, flights only existed until April 2026. In the 12 months to February 2026, 67.6% of seats were filled, with 15,440 round-trip passengers carried. This link has been removed.

Then there’s SEA to Nassau (68.5%; 3,658 passengers; since ended), San Francisco to Loreto (71.3%; 3,986 passengers; since ended), Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) to Puerto Vallarta (71.4%; 4,910 passengers), and Los Angeles to Kelowna (71.5%; 9,675 passengers; since ended).

Despite beginning flights from LAS to Puerto Vallarta in December 2023 and still barely filling seven out of ten seats, Alaska is seemingly happy, as flights will return in winter 2026/2027. A Saturday-only service on SkyWest Embraer E175s will operate. Despite the load, capacity has increased by more than a quarter compared to winter 2025/2026. Fares and yields must be sufficiently enticing to keep Alaska on the route.