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Alaska Airlines is discontinuing its daily flights to Spokane and Boise from Paine Field in Everett.

There are no plans to bring back flights to those two destinations, the airline indicated. As part of some seasonal flight schedule changes, Alaska also will be suspending daily flights to Tucson until October. Daily flights to Palm Springs will stop in mid-April and resume in September. The airline is planning to resume flights to Los Angeles in late April.

Alaska will be serving the following cities from Paine Field: San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Anchorage. Alaska began service to Anchorage last November.

More than a million passengers went through Paine Field during its first year of operation. The pandemic resulted in a sharp decline in those numbers.

Last winter, Propeller Airports CEO Brett Smith said the airport was still recovering. Propeller Airports designed, built, and operates the passenger terminal at Paine Field.

Smith said the percentage of passengers at Paine Field was down between 32% and 40% last summer compared to 2019.

Last summer, Alaska Airlines increased the number of flights from 16 to 18, but later reduced the number of flights. Smith noted the airline industry is facing what many businesses are facing – a lack of qualified employees.

"The big problem, which is systemic in the industry, is a pilot shortage," Smith said. "It's a real big issue that is being faced by carriers globally."