Alaska Airlines saves the Nerd Bird

Although they haven’t even started flying to Austin yet, Alaska Airlines is already planning to expand service here.

On the heels of American’s announcement that it will no longer fly the so-called “Nerd Bird” route between Austin and San Jose, Calif. after Aug. 23, Alaska is picking up the slack with a daily Austin-San Jose flight starting Sept. 2. This is in addition to their previously announced Austin-Seattle service (another abandoned AA route), which begins Aug. 3.

Unfortunately, the outbound Alaska flight doesn’t leave until 3 p.m., which makes a same-day return impossible.