Alaska Airlines expects cargo revenue to reach $750 million by 2030 as it builds off the acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines to diversify and scale up its cargo business through international route expansion and planned intra-island freighter service in Hawai’i, executives said during an investor event on Wednesday.
Management’s theme was that the hard work of integration, including a unified cargo booking system and single operating certificate, and transforming from a domestic carrier into an international one is mostly done; now the Seattle-based airline is moving into the value-creation phase by focusing on areas such as premium travel, the loyalty program and cargo.
After the merger with Hawaiian Airlines in September 2024, Alaska’s cargo revenue grew 57% to $549 million last year. The jump seems bigger than it actually is because the merged figures are compared to the mostly solo-Alaska Air performance, but the company’s cargo opportunities have clearly expanded, especially with Hawaiian providing first-time entry into widebody passenger aircraft and long-haul international routes. In the first half of 2026, Alaska Air’s cargo revenue was $316 million — putting it on track for more than $600 million in revenue with the peak shipping season still ahead.
Alaska Air (NYSE: ALK) currently serves five international destinations, including Tokyo, Seoul, South Korea; London and Rome. Next year, the company will begin service to Paris and Athens from its Seattle hub and expects to fly to 15 international destinations by 2030. Most of those cities are located in strong industrial economies with large trade flows. The Boeing 787-9s used on those routes have significant capacity for cargo containers in the lower deck and cargo yields are higher on longer distances than with short-haul domestic routes.
Alaska Airlines currently operates three Boeing 737-700 converted freighters and two larger Boeing 737-800 passenger-to-freighter aircraft in its domestic network. The cargo jets were originally a way for Alaska to serve communities across Alaska, providing freight and mail connectivity to the Seattle hub and export markets across the lower 48 states. For years, cargo revenue was about a $130 million to $150 million annual business.
In late July, the company disclosed plans to lease four additional 737-800 converted freighters. Alaska Air intends to operate two new dedicated freighters within Hawaii, serving the islands from its base at Honolulu airport, an Alaska spokesperson told FreightWaves at the time. The planes will be painted in a Hawaiian Air Cargo livery.
Alaska Air also inherited Hawaiian’s side hustle flying Airbus A330-300 cargo jets for Amazon. The planes are supplied by Amazon, with Alaska responsible for providing crews, maintenance and insurance. Alaska currently operates 11 Amazon freighters and earlier this year renegotiated its transportation contract with more favorable terms.
“Cargo allows us to fully monetize our assets across the network. As we grow internationally, optimize fleet deployment and leverage a combined Alaska and Hawaiian footprint, cargo becomes an increasingly meaningful contributor to both revenue growth and margin expansion,” said Ian Morgan, vice president of cargo, during the live-streamed event.
As Alaska Air expands internationally, cargo can generate incremental revenue and profit.
“Cargo contributes as much as 20% of flight revenue on transpacific routes, creating meaningful revenue enhancement without additional aircraft. Collectively, these businesses produce margins that are twice the system average, making cargo an important contributor to our long term financial targets,” Morgan said.
Alaska Air’s cargo chief said the airline could reach 50% market share in the state of Alaska, up from 37%, as it introduces more 737-800 freighters to the fleet. Competitors include Northern Air Cargo and Lynden Air Cargo.
Hawaii represents a similar opportunity, but from a much smaller base.
Alaska Air holds a 6% share of the interisland cargo market, where it competes with companies such as Southwest, Aloha Air Cargo, Transair Cargo and Kamaka Air utilizing its passenger fleet.
“By adding dedicated freighter service, leveraging Hawaiian’s brand, loyal customer base, and applying the operating model we have refined in Alaska, we see a path towards 50% share,” said Morgan. “We’re not creating demand that doesn’t exist. We’re leveraging assets, capabilities, expertise we already possess and applying them to an underpenetrated market with significant growth potential.”
Morgan portrayed Alaska’s cargo growth and cargo’s 2.6% share of total revenue as outpacing that of industry peers, but any comparison comes with many qualifiers. Major U.S. carriers operate huge international networks and generate three to four times total revenue than Alaska. They also don’t operate freighters. Southwest Airlines might be the best comparison to Alaska because it operates a mostly domestic (some short-haul international leisure destinations) network with an all-narrow body fleet. Southwest’s 2025 cargo revenue was $171 million and cargo represented 0.6% of total revenue. United Airlines is the cargo leader among passenger U.S. passenger airlines, with $1.8 billion in cargo revenue and a 3% share of total revenue.
Why It Matters: Alaska Airlines is poised to become a much larger competitor in the air cargo market as it adds more standard cargo jets for local and domestic service and continues its evolution into a full-fledged international air carrier. That means more shipping options for beneficial cargo owners.
Alaska Accelerate
Overall, Alaska Air is two-thirds of the way towards its goal of $1 billion in incremental profit and $10 earnings per share from the Hawaiian merger and expects to achieve that by the end of 2027, CFO Shane Tackett said.
The spike in jet fuel prices, inflation’s impact on consumer demand, massive flooding in Hawaii and global economic uncertainty are headwinds to achieving the earnings per share target, he acknowledged. In the second quarter, Alaska lost $76 million versus a profit of $172 million the prior year.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.
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