Seasonal airlines boost visitors: plane-spotting results in more diverse tail fins.

• Author: Stricker, Julie
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Transportation

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For much of the year, plane-spotting at Alaska's two largest airports can be a little repetitious. Only a handful of airlines fly in and out year-round. But when tourism season rolls around, the designs on the tail fins get a lot more diverse.

In Anchorage, for instance, Alaska Air, Delta Airlines, United Air Lines, and American Airlines fly in to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport year-round. Usually in May, they're joined by airlines such as JetBlue Airways and Sun Country Airlines, which fly to the West Coast and Minneapolis. Air Canada, Condor, Icelandair, and Yakutia Airlines offer seasonal links to other countries, while China Airlines operates seasonal charters.

The addition of new domestic airlines, such as JetBlue, has helped drive down ticket prices to some destinations. Its inaugural flight to Anchorage, for instance, included $149 one-way tickets from Anchorage to Long Beach, California. Starting with its May 2016 service, it offered $78 Anchorage-Seattle flights. It also had a flash sale offering $30 tickets between Anchorage and Seattle or Portland.

More Direct Routes to Alaska

The bulk of the seasonal passengers are tourists, which provide a huge economic impact to the city, says Julie Saupe, CEO of Visit Anchorage. Overall, visitors spend about $1.8 billion statewide, with $367 million of that being spent in Anchorage. Roughly 40 percent of travelers to Anchorage arrive by air in the summer months.

Saupe and her counterparts at Explore Fairbanks have worked hard over the past several years to entice new airlines to put Alaska cities on their routes. That gives more people a direct route to Alaska, and it can also provide new destinations for Alaskans.

"Every airline brings along its own customer base, people who are loyal to it," Saupe says. "Most airlines might also bring along a unique new direct gateway city."

Icelandair is starting direct seasonal service between Anchorage and Reykjavik-Keflavik. It's an airline and destination Visit Anchorage has been aggressively pursuing for the past five or six years, Saupe says. It took many meetings with airline officials over the years as Visit Anchorage demonstrated the demand for the Alaska travel among Icelandair's northern European markets.

The growth in the number of seasonal airlines is reflected in a growth in visitor volume. According to a study for the state of Alaska by McDowell Group in February 2016, visitor volume increased 7 percent...