Alaska Airlines to suspend flights from Fresno to L.A. What are travelers’ options?

Alaska Airlines, one of only two commercial airlines providing nonstop service between Fresno and Los Angeles, will discontinue its route after the Labor Day holiday weekend next month.

The airline’s booking site shows that Tuesday, Sept. 6 will be the final departure from Fresno to Los Angeles International Airport, leaving Fresno Yosemite International Airport at 8 a.m. The last return flight on the schedule is later that day, leaving LAX at 6:40 p.m. and arriving in Fresno at 7:44 p.m.

“We are suspending FAT-LAX service in a month,” the airline said in an email to The Fresno Bee on Friday. “The reason is some regional capacity constraints we’re facing.” The company added that the cut is due to an unanticipated shortage of available crew members to operate the flights.

Alaska Airlines said it expects to resume the route in the spring of 2023..

Vikkie Calderon, a spokesperson for Fresno Yosemite International Airport, said the city-owned airport had not been notified by Alaska Airlines about the rationale for its decision. Alaska’s flights were operated by Utah-based SkyWest Airlines under the AlaskaSkyWest brand.

Alaska Airlines’ temporary pullout from the Fresno market will leave United Airlines as the only carrier offering service between Fresno, the fifth largest city in California, and Los Angeles.

“With United, we still have service to L.A. and connectivity for interstate travel beyond Los Angeles,” Calderon told The Fresno Bee late Thursday afternoon.

United offers two daily nonstop flights each way between Fresno and Los Angeles, Calderon added.

Will Alaska Airlines still serve Fresno?

Alaska Airlines will remain in the Fresno market on other routes.

The airline’s booking engine continues to offer at least one daily nonstop flight each way between Fresno and San Diego; two nonstop flights each way between Fresno and Seattle; and two daily flights most days between Fresno and Portland, Ore.

The cut in service to Los Angeles by Alaska Airlines comes less than six months after the airline announced its “Flight Pass” program in which customers could purchase annual subscriptions for round-trip flights on its Fresno-Los Angeles and Fresno-San Diego routes, as well as other city pairs across the western U.S.

”The primary reason for our decision is … a shortage of crew from our regional operator (SkyWest) that wasn’t anticipated when we built our summer schedule several months ago,” an airline representative told The Fresno Bee by email Friday afternoon. “The suspension in service is planned through the winter with a return to service in the spring of 2023.”

The airline said the route represents a “small fraction” of Alaska Airlines’ Flight Pass subscribers, but “we understand the inconvenience it may have on our guests to have relied on this route for business or to visit family and friends.”

Fresno customers with Flight Pass subscriptions can contact the airline to look at options for their subscriptions, including cancellation. Customers can call the toll-free Flight Pass line at 888-885-0155 to learn more.