Coming This Year: New Low-Fare Airline Linking U.S., Japan, Korea

 

A new low-fare airline between the United States and Asia is set to take off in autumn 2022. Northern Pacific Airways plans to link 5 airports in the continental US with four destinations in Japan and Korea.

What’s the catch? A stopover in a sixth US destination: Anchorage, Alaska. Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is to be Northern Pacific’s hub between Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York and Orlando in the US, and Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, Japan, and Seoul, South Korea.

Old Asia hands may be reminded of the ‘80s or earlier - refueling stops in Anchorage were routine back then. The rest of us may be wondering why we’d opt for a layover when there are now nonstop flights to Japan and Korea from all four corners of the Lower 48.

Northern Pacific makes a compelling case, and it’s not just the low fares.

First, geography. On a flat map, Alaska looks far from just about everywhere else. But chart out the shortest route on a globe - Go ahead. Use a string. I’ll wait. - and you’ll see that most flights between North America and East Asia actually get pretty close to Anchorage. It’s that crazy curvature-of-the-Earth thing. So a stopover isn’t as outlandish as it first appears.

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