The 
Boeing 737 family has long formed the backbone of Alaska Airlines’ operations when it comes to mainline flights using narrowbody twinjets. In recent years, the carrier has been increasingly deploying next-generation aircraft from the 737 MAX series to aid this mission, and has more on order.
Today, the 
Alaska Airlines fleet features almost 90 aircraft from the Boeing 737 MAX family across two variants, with another 75 on order (including units of a third variant). As the calendar year begins to wind down to a close, these jets will play an important role in getting the carrier’s passengers to where they need to be amid the busy winter season, but what will be their top routes this December? Let’s see!
Alaska Airlines’ Boeing 737 MAX Fleet In A Nutshell
According to fleet data made available by ch-aviation, Alaska Airlines currently has 88 Boeing 737 MAX family aircraft at its disposal. The larger MAX 9 is by far the dominant variant, accounting for 80 jets at an average age of just three years old. Of these, just three are listed as inactive due to maintenance, although another is no longer in service with the airline after being involved in a dramatic blowout incident.
Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines’ remaining eight aircraft from the Boeing 737 MAX family are examples of the smaller MAX 8, with these jets being just one year old on average. The carrier also has outstanding orders for another 12 units for this variant, as well as 63 for the stretched MAX 10. Commenting on the carrier’s growing MAX fleet, Stan Deal, the President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in 2022:
“The 737 MAX family offers environmental performance and flexibility. (…) Built in our Renton factory near Alaska’s headquarters in Washington state, these airplanes will carry passengers to destinations for years to come.”
Where Will The MAX 9s Fly?
Looking at scheduling data for December 2025 as made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, we can see that the Boeing 737 MAX family plays a huge role in Alaska Airlines’ mainline operations. That month, it has penciled in 8,072 flights with the type, with these offering 1,417,246 seats and 2,598,921,344 available seat miles. As you might expect, the more numerous MAX 9 has the biggest share.
Indeed, the type, one of which was used as a Boeing ecoDemonstrator before its delivery to Alaska Airlines, accounts for 7,042 of the series’ flights at the carrier in December. Of these, 791 are to or from foreign destinations, with the type’s top international route being from Los Angeles to Liberia in Costa Rica (41 rotations in December). Cancun in Mexico will also see more than daily MAX 9 flights from LAX.
On the domestic side of things, the Boeing 737 MAX 9 features most commonly on Alaska Airlines’ routes out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The most numerous of these in December will serve Anchorage with as many as seven flights a day (although some have none), with San Diego, Kona, New York JFK, Newark, Maui, and Phoenix also served more than twice a day on average from the airline’s Seattle hub.
What About The MAX 8?
Of the 1,030 flights scheduled to be operated by Alaska Airlines’ smaller Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets this December, just 234 are to or from foreign destinations. The type’s top international route will be from LAX to Guatemala City, with daily flights, although San Jose in Costa Rica is only missing one day.
On the domestic side of things, Alaska Airlines’ Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes will be used on a huge variety of lower-frequency routes in December 2025, with the jet’s most commonly served internal corridor only seeing 26 flights. The route in question connects Los Angeles with Seattle-Tacoma.
As it happens, the West Coast corridor of the United States of America is something of a happy hunting ground for Alaska Airlines’ MAX 8s. Indeed, among the type’s other top domestic routes for December 2025 are Seattle to San Jose and Portland to San Diego, with 24 and 20 flights respectively.
