“Particularly when the incoming flight is delayed and we miss the midday flight to Yakima, it has been very beneficial to have these late night flights available so that we don’t have to overnight in Seattle. “If we are able to take really early flights on our return trip, we can catch the midday return flight to Yakima, but we do end up on the late night flight a fair amount of time,” she added. in the late afternoon or early evening,” Rhodes told the Herald-Republic. “The vast majority of the time we fly out of YKM on the early morning flight since that allows us to catch morning flights out of SeaTac that arrive in cities in the central and eastern U.S. Yakima resident Diana Rhodes, who along with her husband flies out of the Yakima airport 8-10 times a year, said the early morning and late night flights to and from SeaTac are popular with Yakima Valley travelers and will be missed. 7, a flight will depart from SeaTac at 12:20 p.m., then leave Yakima at 1:42 p.m. When Alaska’s reduced schedule takes effect on Wednesday, Sept. Prior to the pandemic, there were three or four arrivals and departures between Yakima and SeaTac each day. 6 are scheduled at 12:40 and 10:50 p.m., again similar to the daily flight schedule since August 2020. ![]() 6 – similar to the schedule that has existed since August 2020, as restrictions due to COVID-19 began to ease and airline travel began to recover.ĭepartures from SeaTac to Yakima on Sept. Current schedule syncs with SeaTacĪlaska Airline’s website shows flights from Yakima to SeaTac departing at 5 a.m. Yakima is one of six regional airports which will have its Alaska Horizon flights cut to once a day in each direction, with Walla Walla Wenatchee Great Falls, Montana Edmonton, Alberta and Victoria, British Columbia, also facing schedule reductions on Sept. “We’re into an era where there is a significant pilot shortage, and the airlines are adjusting their schedules to deal with that.” Wenatchee, Walla Walla, Spokane – we’re all in the same boat,” Vera said. “The challenging part is, it’s not just us. Finding and training new pilots takes time, Vera said. Many of those pilots retired from major airlines, and many of their replacements are pilots at regional airlines, such as Horizon Air, which serves the Yakima airport. Vera said more than 6,000 pilots took an early retirement as the COVID pandemic greatly reduced air travel two years ago. “We are working as aggressively as we can with Alaska to address the issues causing (the new schedule) and are hoping to resume those flights in the near future,” he added. I know our community is eager to get back out and travel, and we’re grateful for that. ![]() “We ask our community to be patient – we know this is a frustrating situation. “Currently we are trying to work with Alaska Airlines on this issue, but unfortunately it’s something we can’t control,” Vera said. Jaime Vera, airport operations manager at the Yakima Air Terminal, said he and other local officials have very limited input into the fall flight schedule changes. ![]() “We chose to keep that one specific (midday) roundtrip because it better connects to the majority of our network from Seattle and all the top connecting spots,” the spokesperson said. “We’re committed to the Yakima Valley and hope to add more flight frequencies when conditions improve. “Staffing challenges continue to impact the flight schedules we can operate at Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air,” an Alaska Airlines spokesperson told the Yakima Herald-Republic on Wednesday, May 18, via email. The early morning departure to Sea-Tac and late-night arrival in Yakima will no longer be available. 7.Īlaska’s regional carrier, Horizon Air, will cut its daily flights to and from Yakima Air Terminal to one each direction, with both scheduled midday. ![]() The continuing shortage of pilots and other employees, along with upgrades to its fleet of aircraft, will mean fewer Alaska Airlines flights between Yakima and Sea-Tac airports as of Sept.
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