Des Moines, Iowa: Alaska Airlines to Launch First Iowa Service With Daily Seattle Nonstop

Des Moines is getting a new airline for the first time in 14 years. Alaska Airlines and Des Moines International Airport announced Thursday that the carrier will start daily, year-round nonstop service between Des Moines and Seattle on June 24, 2027, the airline's first service anywhere in Iowa and the first nonstop flight ever offered between Des Moines and Seattle.

Airport CEO Brian Mulcahy announced the service at a news conference on Thursday, Nov. 12. Tickets went on sale the same day on the Alaska Airlines website. The Seattle flight leaves at 9:00 a.m. and arrives in Des Moines at 2:42 p.m. The return flight leaves Des Moines at 3:27 p.m. and arrives in Seattle at 5:36 p.m., with all times local.

One route to start, on a 70 seat jet

Seattle is the only Alaska Airlines destination from Des Moines at launch, and airport officials said the carrier hopes to add a flight to San Diego later. The daily flight will run on an Embraer 175 regional jet seating about 70 passengers, according to airport officials. Seattle is Alaska's largest hub, so the single route connects central Iowa travelers to the airline's wider West Coast network without a stop in Denver, Chicago or Minneapolis.

"Access to Seattle opens a whole new network for us," airport spokesperson Sarah Hoodjer said. Mulcahy said the arrival fills a gap in the airport's service to the northwestern United States and may help bring fares down. Alaska's managing director of network planning, Darren Scott, said bringing the airline to Iowa for the first time is something the company is especially proud of.

First new carrier since 2012

Alaska will be the seventh airline at Des Moines, joining Delta, United, American, Frontier, Allegiant and Southwest. It is the first new carrier to start service there since Southwest Airlines in September 2012. The airport has offered incentives to airlines that add routes since 2015, and Alaska qualifies for a $200,000 landing fee waiver and $25,000 for marketing under that program. Hoodjer said Alaska had been considering Des Moines for seven years, and the airport's new terminal may have helped close the decision.

The timing lines up with that terminal. The new building opens in January 2027, adding six gates to the current 13, with a seventh gate due by the end of 2027. Work on the $550 million Lift DSM project continues through 2030 and adds four more gates. Traffic gives the airline a growing market to enter: the airport counted 3.25 million passengers in 2025, up 2.6 percent from 2024, and has served 2.76 million passengers so far in 2026, up 0.5 percent from the same period in 2025 despite higher ticket prices tied to fuel costs.

Part of Alaska's biggest Seattle launch

Des Moines is one of four new cities in the announcement, which Alaska called its biggest summer launch yet from Seattle. Daily service to Charlotte, North Carolina, and Norfolk, Virginia, starts June 10, 2027. Jacksonville, Florida, and Des Moines follow on June 24, 2027, and seasonal service to Guadalajara, Mexico, runs three times a week from March 18 through Aug. 9, 2027. The additions bring Alaska's Seattle nonstop network to 119 destinations. For Des Moines, the headline is simpler: from next June, Seattle is one flight away for the first time.