Tampa International Airport will have new nonstop service to California.
Alaska Airlines will offer daily nonstop flights between Tampa and Los Angeles and twice-weekly service to San Francisco as part of the airline’s efforts to connect California to key markets around the country, the airport announced this week.
Starting Nov. 20, Alaska will initially operate flights from Tampa to San Francisco on Saturday and Sundays and they will depart from San Francisco International Airport to TPA on Fridays and Saturdays.
The airline's Boeing 737 aircraft will be used for the new flight services.
Bicoastal journeys usually included at least one layover in the middle of the country, which resulted in trips regularly taking more than eight hours to get from one bay city to the other — making nonstop connections a big win for the area.
The new flights will augment TPA's service to LAX aboard Delta Air Lines and service to SFO aboard United Airlines, which are both scheduled to resume in September.
Alaska currently has a nonstop service to Seattle. The additional service will bring the airline's total nonstop connections out of TPA up to three.
In 2017, when United announced it was going to bring the Tampa to San Francisco connection, the route at the time was the most underserved in the country.