Alaska Airlines has debuted its first-ever branded widebody plane, a Boeing Dreamliner that has already been rotated into the carrier’s long-haul schedule.
The 787-9 entered service — including flights from Seattle to Tokyo — as Alaska announced its biggest-ever aircraft deal, ordering 110 planes from Boeing two years after a mid-cabin door plug missing key bolts blew out from one of the company’s 737 Max-9 planes at 14,800 feet.
Alaska grounded its entire 737 Max-9 fleet as a result.
The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the January 5, 2024, incident and found serious failures in Boeing’s manufacturing oversight and quality-control processes, with the plug not properly secured during production.
Alaska’s order of 105 737 Max-10s and five 787-10 Dreamliners is the largest fleet order in the airline’s history and a vote of confidence in Boeing following the door plug crisis.
“You guys have worked hard in the past two years,” Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci told Boeing employees at the unveiling of the new green-liveried Dreamliner in Seattle.
“When it comes to quality and safety, performance and efficiency, we are lock and step with you. And you know that Alaska will hold the bar high on every plane that gets delivered to Alaska.
“We are committed to your success, and I know that you are committed to our success.”
Minicucci said his vision is to transform Alaska into America’s fourth-largest global airline and compete against the “big three” (United, Delta and American).
To that end, the carrier has opened ticket sales for its first-ever route that runs direct from Seattle to London, with round-trip fares from $699.
The new daily, year-round service launches on May 21, with a Seattle-London flight time of nine hours and 20 minutes, and the return leg scheduled to take nine hours and 50 minutes.
Alaska is also launching a new daily seasonal service from Seattle to Rome on April 28, 2026 — with fares from $599 already on sale — and daily seasonal flights to Reykjavik, Iceland, from May 28, 2026, with fares from $699.
The London and Rome services will be operated by widebody 787 Dreamliner aircraft, while the seven-and-a-half-hour Seattle-Reykjavik service will use 737-8 Max aircraft, which Alaska Airlines said are "designed for this type of long-range flying.”
Presently, the cabin on the newly unveiled Dreamliner is borrowed from Hawaiian Airlines, which it merged with in 2024.
That’s because while the Dreamliner is brand-new, it was originally a Hawaiian order.
Inside, there is a business class with privacy doors and fully lie-flat seats in a direct-aisle-access 1-2-1 configuration. Other features include 18-inch monitors, noise-reducing headsets and wireless charging.
Alaska now has five Dreamliners in operation across its network, but four have been redeployed from Hawaiian’s fleet.
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