The Renaissance-era artwork, historic Roman historical past, and the creamy cacio e pepe of Rome will quickly be a direct flight away from the Pacific Northwest.
Alaska Airways has unveiled plans to launch inaugural nonstop service between Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport (SEA) and Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino Airport (FCO) in Might 2026. This would be the airline’s first European vacation spot, a part of its broader technique to boost worldwide connectivity from its Seattle hub—a transfer that got here into play due to the Alaska-Hawaiian airways merger, giving Alaska Airways entry to longer-range plane.
“Rome has been on the prime of the record ever since we introduced our new international gateway out of Seattle. Our visitors have been asking for a simple option to get to Italy for years, and we’re thrilled to offer it to folks within the Northwest and past,” Alaska Airways CEO Ben Minicucci acknowledged in a press launch.
The brand new route will function 4 instances per week, departing Seattle on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 6 p.m. and arriving within the Everlasting Metropolis at 1:45 p.m. the next day. It is going to return from Rome on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 3:45 p.m. and land at 6 p.m. native time. The airline hasn’t but shared if the flights might be seasonal or year-round, but it surely did say they may happen on Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
This marks the third wide-body, worldwide route served by the Alaska Air Group (the guardian firm for Alaska Airways and Hawaiian, the latter of which was acquired in September 2024) out of its international gateway at Seattle. The opposite routes are to Tokyo, Japan’s Narita Worldwide Airport (NRT), which launched on Might 12, 2025, and Seoul, South Korea’s Incheon Worldwide Airport (ICN), slated to kick off September 12, 2025. Nevertheless, these are technically operated by Hawaiian Airways, because the wide-body planes (also referred to as twin-aisle plane) essential for the flight at the moment belong to them.
“This new route can even mark the debut of Alaska’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which the airline acquired as a part of its merger with Hawaiian Airways,” Julian Kheel, journey professional and founding father of Factors Path, an award flight-search engine, instructed Afar. “Alaska has promised it should supply an all-new flagship worldwide journey expertise on these plane.”
At current, no different airline connects Seattle and Rome, although Delta Air Strains at the moment flies nonstop from Seattle to Amsterdam, London, and Paris.
“With Delta as Alaska’s prime rival in Seattle, all eyes at the moment are on whether or not Delta will fireplace again with a nonstop Rome route of its personal from Seattle,” Kheel stated. “Given Delta’s scale and aggressive stance out there, it wouldn’t be a shock to see such a transfer within the close to future.”
Flights might be accessible on each alaskaair.com and hawaiianairlines.com this fall. Vacationers on this route can be a part of the early-access record at alaskaair.com/rome to be notified when bookings open.