Alaska Airlines opening new pilot base in San Diego and plans to hire hundreds

In a move to further cement its position as a dominant air carrier in San Diego, Alaska Airlines will launch next year its first pilot base here, with the goal of stationing up to 250 captains and first officers at the airport.

Within California, the airline already has pilot crews stationed in San Francisco and Los Angeles, but it has never had a similar setup in San Diego where a robust crew of pilots will be at the ready to operate flights departing daily from the airport.

The decision to locate a base here will also involve hiring 90 new first officers during the first quarter of 2026, although the new pilots won’t all be necessarily working out of San Diego International Airport. As a result, reaching a goal of 250 locally based pilots will likely come at the expense of pilot reductions at one or more of Alaska’s five other bases in the West.

The airline characterized the move as one that will not only strengthen the operation of its fleet of 737 planes, but also enhance “connectivity for travelers” in San Diego.

“San Diego is the fastest-growing hub in Alaska Airlines’ network, with 80% capacity growth between 2023 and the schedule we will fly next year, including 14 new routes,” said Neil Thwaites, regional vice president of California at Alaska Airlines. “Establishing a pilot base here helps us improve operational reliability and support future growth in the region. While the base itself doesn’t automatically mean new routes, we are committed to long-term growth in San Diego, and the pilot base will help enable that.

“We hope the takeaway for our guests in San Diego is that this is yet another way Alaska Airlines is investing in the region for the long term.”

The first phase of the new base will launch relatively quickly. Eligible pilots are being asked to apply for an estimated 80 captain positions and 70 first officer slots at the San Diego location between Dec. 15 and Dec. 28. A final decision is expected by Jan. 6, and the base will become effective June 1.

A second phase will likely go into effect by October, with the application period planned for late spring, when an additional 60 captain and 40 officer slots will become available,  Alaska Airlines said. New and relocated pilots can choose to live close to the airport base, Thwaites said, which will have the added benefit of boosting the local economy by bringing more jobs here and also fueling more local spending.

Pilots interested in coming to San Diego can apply from any one of Alaska’s existing bases, which also include Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Anchorage, Alaska. Thwaites acknowledged that creating a new base in San Diego will mean staffing changes at other airports, but he wouldn’t say the extent of the downsizing or where it might be most concentrated. Even though the San Francisco and Los Angeles airports will likely lose some pilot staffing, those jobs will remain in California because the crew members would instead be going to San Diego, the airline explained.

As for the 90 new hires, he said those will help support the airline’s overall network growth, not just in San Diego.

No question, the staffing plan for Alaska is a win for San Diego and local travelers, says industry analyst Henry Harteveldt, and it represents a significant milestone in Alaska’s growth plans for the region.

“What this indicates to me is that Alaska is planning a really substantial growth spurt in San Diego,” said Harteveldt, founder of San Francisco-based Atmosphere Research Group. “It doesn’t mean that they’re going to necessarily add, like 1,000 flights a day. But what this does mean is that by having a San Diego base, it will be easier for the airline to staff flights that start or end in San Diego, rather than having to create routings for pilots to come from some other base.

“This will certainly allow Alaska to add more flights to both its existing destinations and to new destinations. It also means that Alaska flights will potentially be more reliable, because they will require fewer pilots coming in from other cities to crew the flights departing San Diego, and that’s really critical.”

The new home base for pilots comes at a time when Alaska has been steadily ramping up its presence in San Diego with new nonstop destinations. It’s also another example of the increasingly keen competition between rivals Southwest Airlines and Alaska, as both airlines continue to expand their reach in the region. While Southwest has the most flights and carries the largest number of passengers out of the San Diego airport, Alaska can boast that it has the single most nonstop destinations among all airlines operating here.

In October, Alaska announced the addition of five new nonstops for next year — Dallas-Forth Worth, Raleigh-Durham, Oakland, Tulsa and Santa Barbara. And several months earlier, it revealed that it would be launching service to Phoenix, Chicago O’Hare and Denver, in addition to offering more frequent nonstop flights to Las Vegas, Sacramento, San Jose and Salt Lake City.

“What this really shows is Alaska is building this fortress along the West Coast, and there’s going to be a bit of a dogfight between Alaska and Southwest for the San Diego market, which frankly, is great for consumers, whether it’s people who live in the San Diego metro area or people coming in for business or personal trips,” Harteveldt said.

Meanwhile, Southwest executives have said that the opening of the first phase of the new Terminal 1 in San Diego, where the airline is the principal tenant, has allowed it to once again add more flights and nonstops, with still more on the way.

“Southwest is certainly realigning its route network within California and has announced a substantial reduction in flights at Oakland International Airport, while adding flights elsewhere,” Harteveldt said. “Hopefully, this added competition keeps airfares at more reasonable levels, and consumers will have choices.”