American pilots raise concerns over planned Alaska Airlines-European route codeshare

American sees this development as an opportunity to strengthen its presence in the Northwest United States without deploying more of its own aircraft. Traditionally, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have dominated international routes from the US West Coast. Meanwhile, American's partnership with Japan Airlines has allowed coordinated scheduling and pricing on trans-Pacific flights; JAL is now considering bringing Alaska into this arrangement.

The APA maintains that the existing contracts were crafted to allow domestic— but not international—codesharing with Alaska. The union also points out that since the 787s were originally intended for Hawaiian Airlines, their use under Alaska’s brand comes with additional restrictions on codeshares. Silva claims that “American Airlines had 'revealed plans to ignore this in the contract discussion.'”

Scope clauses are significant for pilots because they protect jobs by ensuring long-haul flying opportunities remain within American rather than being outsourced through codeshares or other arrangements. According to APA spokesperson Dennis Tajer: “the scope clause is paramount for pilots, as this 'protects our current jobs and future.'”

Silva has filed two grievances related to these issues: one over the proposed international codeshares involving American and another concerning Hawaiian’s aircraft being used by Alaska for expansion abroad. Both matters are set for arbitration in October.

Data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows that between November 2023 and October 2024, Alaska Airlines accounted for nearly half of all operations at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), serving all top ten domestic routes from SEA (including Anchorage, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Francisco, Chicago, San Diego and Atlanta). However, until now Alaska has not been involved in long-haul international flights from Seattle except those within North America such as Vancouver or Cancun. That is changing as flights between Seattle and Tokyo Narita are currently operated by Hawaiian on behalf of Alaska; similar arrangements will start for Seoul Incheon from September 12.

Delta Air Lines remains Seattle’s second-largest carrier with around 20% of all flights at SEA and operates both domestic routes as well as a range of international services including London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle.