{"id":19911,"date":"2026-08-21T00:36:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T00:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/21\/athens-to-get-its-first-non-stop-seattle-flight-in-2027-greek-city-times\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T00:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T00:36:52","slug":"athens-to-get-its-first-non-stop-seattle-flight-in-2027-greek-city-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/21\/athens-to-get-its-first-non-stop-seattle-flight-in-2027-greek-city-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Athens to Get Its First Non-Stop Seattle Flight in 2027 \u2013 Greek City Times"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Alaska Airlines will launch the first non-stop service between Seattle and Athens on May 12, 2027, opening a new route to the Pacific Northwest that will become the longest flight in the airline\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The seasonal service will operate three times a week until October, and when it begins, it will be the only non-stop flight linking Athens with the US West Coast. For Greece, it fills one of the few remaining geographic gaps in a US network that has expanded rapidly in recent years.<\/p>\n

Flights from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will depart at 4.30pm and arrive in Athens at 2.20pm the following day. The return service will leave Athens at 4.20pm from May 13, arriving in Seattle at 6.55pm local time. Tickets are already on sale.<\/p>\n

The importance of the route lies less in the addition of another American city than in where that city sits.<\/p>\n

Athens has become remarkably well connected to the United States, but those connections have largely been concentrated on the East Coast and in central US hubs. In summer 2026, Athens has 103 weekly departures to nine American destinations, including New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Charlotte and Dallas. Despite that capacity, Athens International Airport says 61 per cent of US-Athens origin-and-destination passengers still travelled indirectly in 2025.<\/p>\n

Demand has been moving in the opposite direction. The United States became Athens\u2019 second-largest international origin-and-destination market in 2025, reaching two million round-trip passengers for the first time, an increase of 12 per cent on the previous year. The US was also the airport\u2019s largest foreign visitor market.<\/p>\n

Seattle gives Alaska Airlines<\/a> a way into that growth from a part of the country that has remained comparatively difficult to reach directly.<\/p>\n

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\"Athens
Seattle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

There has been one previous experiment with the West Coast. Norse Atlantic Airways launched a Los Angeles-Athens service in June 2025, operating four times a week during the summer. The route was not retained, with its last scheduled flight in September that year. Alaska\u2019s claim is therefore a specific one: Seattle will become the first Pacific Northwest city ever connected non-stop with Athens and, when the service begins, the only West Coast city with such a flight.<\/p>\n

Athens International Airport CEO George Kallimasias said the connection would \u201copen a new bridge for tourism, business, investment and trade between Greece and the U.S. West Coast\u201d.<\/p>\n

For Alaska Airlines, Athens is part of a much larger reinvention.<\/p>\n

The airline, historically identified with Seattle, Alaska and the western United States, is rapidly building an intercontinental network from Seattle following its combination with Hawaiian Airlines. The expanded group has given Alaska access to widebody aircraft and the infrastructure needed for a kind of long-haul flying that was once well outside its traditional network. Seattle is now being developed as its principal global gateway.<\/p>\n

By summer 2027, Alaska plans to serve seven intercontinental destinations from the city: Athens, Paris, Reykjavik, London, Rome, Seoul and Tokyo. At least five more are planned by 2030.<\/p>\n

Athens and Paris are the latest additions. Paris begins on May 25, 2027, with five weekly flights, while Athens receives the more unusual distinction of becoming Alaska\u2019s longest-ever route.<\/p>\n

Both will be operated by Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, part of the airline\u2019s new long-haul fleet. The aircraft will include fully lie-flat suites in international Business Class, while Alaska says complimentary Starlink Wi-Fi will be available to Atmos Rewards members as installation is completed across the fleet through 2027.<\/p>\n

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\"Athens
Athens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

The airline is also using Seattle to gather passengers from considerably farther afield than Washington state. Its domestic network feeds the hub from cities across the West Coast as well as Alaska and Hawaii, while membership of the oneworld alliance extends connecting possibilities on either side of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

Alaska currently operates more than 360 departures on peak days from the greater Seattle area to 110 non-stop destinations. The Athens flight is designed to turn that domestic scale into an international advantage.<\/p>\n

Introductory return economy fares for the new Athens and Paris services have been advertised from US$999 for purchases made in the United States until August 26, subject to availability and fare conditions.<\/p>\n

For Athens, the significance is larger than a new name on the departures board. The American market has already grown from 46 weekly US departures in peak summer 2019 to more than 100 today. Seattle extends that network to a region that has largely remained one stop away.<\/p>\n

After years of concentrating its American growth east of the Rockies, Athens is now reaching much further west.<\/p>\n

Read also Antonis Krompas Says \u2018Alcohol Was a Side Effect. It Wasn\u2019t the Problem\u2019<\/p>\n

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