Looks like Alaska Airlines will be initiating nonstop service to Austin from Seattle, starting in August. Hooray! Alaska Airlines is a popular low-cost carrier out west, and I hope they will do well in Austin. Seems to be a good fit, considering Austin already has Southwest, Frontier, and jetBlue, and there is a no direct service to the Pacific Northwest at the moment. American ran nonstops between Austin and Seattle for a while in 2006 and 2007, but terminated the service when fuel prices rose last year. Alaska's fleet of Boeing 737NG's are generally much more fuel-efficient than American's gazillion MD-80's, so they may have an easier time scratching out a profit on this route.
Would love to see a direct flight on Alaska between Austin and PDX as well, but this is a great first step. Guess you can always hop a prop with Horizon at Seattle if you need to get down to PDX.
After a steady bleeding of carriers and direct routes from AUS over the last year or so due to the worsening economic conditions, it is good to see some good news for a change.
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