Josh Ferdelman

Alaska is going to fly a 737 from Anchorage to Tokyo. It's one of the most surprising route moves I've seen in years. The route just showed up on Alaska's website: Anchorage to Tokyo Narita, daily in summer, on a 737 MAX 8. Anchorage is offering about $500,000 in fee breaks to get it. Anchorage used to be the stop on the way to Tokyo. During the Cold War, flights between Europe and Japan refueled there because they couldn't cross the Soviet Union. Northwest flew Anchorage-Tokyo in the 1990s too. Once Russia opened its airspace and planes could fly farther, nobody needed the stop. So why now? In Tokyo you can connect to Japan Airlines, Alaska's partner, for the rest of Japan and Asia. And Anchorage doesn't have to fill the plane by itself. Alaska flew nonstop to Anchorage from 16 cities this summer, from Boston to Honolulu. I'd expect more of those, timed to connect to Tokyo. On paper it's 3,425 miles. Alaska's longest MAX 8 flight today is Seattle to Reykjavik at 3,611. But the shortest path runs right past Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, and U.S. airlines can't fly over Russia. Swing around that and you're past 3,750 miles. The diversion airports on the way are places like Cold Bay and Adak. I also wanted to see what else a MAX 8 could reach from Anchorage. Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, and Nagoya are all closer than Seattle-Reykjavik. Osaka, Seoul, and Beijing only fit inside Boeing's 4,028-mile maximum, which is a best case. Shanghai and Taipei are out. If Tokyo works, Sapporo is the next one. It's 420 miles closer.