Why Alaska Airlines Is Flying Internationally From St. Louis
Alaska Airlines’ decision to operate a seasonal flight from St. Louis Lambert International to Puerto Vallarta looks odd at first glance. The carrier is best known for its Pacific Northwest footprint, yet it is running one-weekend-a-week international service from a Midwestern city dominated by another low-cost carrier. The move, though, fits a clear strategy: keep jets flying profitably in the slow season by tapping winter sun markets and partnering with package-tour operators.
Fleet, hubs and a West Coast identity — then winter demand hits
Alaska is built around Seattle–Tacoma, with strong links into Anchorage and reliever operations out of Portland, plus hubs in San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The airline’s network has grown more West Coast‑centric with the recent acquisition of a major leisure operator in Hawaii. But that core market has predictable seasonality: traffic to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska softens in winter.
To avoid underutilizing aircraft and to protect revenue, Alaska launched a slate of winter seasonal routes. In January 2025 the carrier added 10 seasonal destinations, mixing sensible West Coast and hub-linked services with more adventurous one-off leisure routes into Mexico. The goal is straightforward: redeploy aircraft from cold, low-demand markets to warm-weather destinations where Americans travel heavily during winter months.
Why St. Louis, Kansas City and other non-hub cities?
Putting jets on once-weekly flights from St. Louis or Kansas City to Mexican beach destinations may seem unusual for a full-service airline, but several practical factors make it sensible. First, Latin America sees a surge in U. S. demand over winter, so even carriers without deep Latin networks can sell seats. Second, Alaska is smaller than the largest U. S. carriers and does not rely on massive connecting feeds from its hubs; that makes running point‑to‑point leisure services from secondary cities more viable.
Operationally, the carrier has been selective. The Kansas City–Cancún and St. Louis–Puerto Vallarta services now operate on Saturdays only, using the Boeing 737 MAX 9, the airline’s largest narrowbody. Low frequency lowers exposure: one-weekend flights reduce crew rotation and simplify scheduling while still offering a market presence. Some experimental routes did not return; Kansas City–Puerto Vallarta was dropped after the initial winter season, while the St. Louis and New York JFK links to Puerto Vallarta and Kansas City–Cancún were resumed for the following winter.
How partnerships and package demand de-risk the move
Another key piece is commercial partnerships. The St. Louis route is supported by an arrangement with a package‑holiday operator that effectively guarantees a block of seats for bundled vacations. That structure reduces the risk of low independent leisure demand and helps ensure the route can cover costs even with modest individual-ticket sales.
The combination of seasonality-driven redeployment, low-frequency scheduling using suitable aircraft, and package-tour agreements gives Alaska a low-risk template for serving non-hub markets. It preserves aircraft utilization when home markets are soft and puts capacity where winter travelers want to go.
What this means for travelers is more options: nontraditional carriers flying from unexpected airports to popular winter destinations. For the airline, the experiment lets it test demand at limited cost and scale service up or down depending on passenger response. If the model works, similar weekend-only leisure flights from other secondary cities could appear in future winter schedules.
