 At the time of deregulation , Alaska Airlines served ten cities in Alaska and one in the contiguous US — the city of Seattle — , and it had only ten planes in its fleet . Immediately after deregulation , the airline began to expand , adding the cities of Portland and San Francisco to its network . Soon later , the airline resumed services to the Alaskan cities Nome and Kotzebue , and it also introduced service to Palm Springs , California . Burbank and Ontario were added in 1981 . In 1979 , Alaska also studied the possibility of acquiring and merging with Hughes Air West , however this never came to fruition . Other cities in the continental US that were added to the airline 's route map by 1985 were Oakland and San Jose in California , Spokane in Washington , Boise in Idaho , and Phoenix and Tucson in Arizona . 
