Alaska Airlines will launch its first Boeing 737 MAX service to Europe on May 28, starting daily flights from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Keflavik International Airport in Iceland. The summer route will run through September 7 and cover 3,147 nautical miles, or 5,828 km, each way.
The airline will fly the route with a 161-seat Boeing 737 MAX 8, configured with 16 reclining chairs in domestic first, 30 extra legroom seats and 115 seats in the main cabin. Food and drink will be included, while passengers will need to stream entertainment to their own devices. For Alaska, the flight will be its longest ever narrowbody service.
The service adds a new U.S. airline option on a market already served nonstop from Seattle by Icelandair, which has flown the route since July 2009. Between July 2009 and February 2026, Icelandair carried just shy of two million round-trip passengers on the Seattle route, which accounted for 13% of its U.S. traffic in that period.
The numbers help explain why Alaska is moving in now. Booking data suggests 48,000 round-trip passengers flew between Seattle and Keflavik in the 12 months to February 2026, making Keflavik the 7th most popular U.S. city for local passengers. In July and August 2026, Alaska Airlines and Icelandair will together have over 76,000 two-way seats for sale between the two airports, up 10% year over year.
There is still a catch for travelers looking for more choices. Alaska’s Iceland service is seasonal, limited to flights between the United States and Keflavik from May 28 to September 7, while Icelandair will be serving Keflavik three times a day in peak summer 2026. Icelandair will also use the 160-seat Boeing 737 MAX 8 on the Seattle market that summer, its lowest-capacity jet, which means 14% fewer seats for sale.
Alaska’s entry comes as part of a broader push into Europe in 2026, with the carrier also set to begin flying to London for the first time on May 21 and to start its daily Seattle to Reykjavik service five days later. For now, the significance is straightforward: Alaska is joining a route that has long had demand, but only one nonstop player from Seattle, and it is doing so with a summer-only schedule that will test how much room is left in a market that is already crowded with transatlantic seats.
