Alaska Airlines is adding a surprising twist to its first nonstop route between Rome and Seattle, tapping specialist cargo broker Global GSA Group to power freight sales out of Italy on its new Boeing 787-9 service. The move signals a far more ambitious play than a simple passenger route launch, positioning Seattle as a transatlantic cargo gateway and putting Alaska into direct competition with long-haul freight operators on one of Europe’s most export-heavy corridors.
A Passenger Milestone With a Cargo First-Mover Advantage
When Alaska Airlines announced Rome as its first European destination in 2025, most attention focused on the passenger story. The Seattle-based carrier is set to begin nonstop flights between Rome Fiumicino and Seattle in late April 2026, deploying newly acquired Boeing 787-9 aircraft and offering a premium long-haul experience on what will be its inaugural transatlantic route.
Behind the scenes, however, the airline has quietly built a parallel cargo strategy. Ahead of the Rome launch, Alaska has appointed Global GSA Group as its general sales and service agent in Italy, giving the cargo specialist full commercial responsibility for selling and developing freight capacity on the Rome to Seattle route. For a carrier historically known for domestic and regional flying, it marks an assertive pivot into global cargo markets at the very moment it steps onto the European stage.
The timing is deliberate. Alaska’s 787-9 operation from Rome comes as the airline seeks to knit its growing Asia Pacific, North American and soon European networks into a cohesive long-haul system for both people and goods. Seattle, already a rising passenger hub, is now being framed as an integrated cargo gateway linking Italian exporters to more than 100 onward destinations across the United States, Latin America, the South Pacific and Asia.
Inside the Global GSA Group Deal
Global GSA Group’s appointment in Italy is more than a typical regional representation contract. The company will handle the full commercial development of Alaska’s cargo business out of Rome, from marketplace positioning and pricing to long-term relationships with freight forwarders. In practice, that means Global GSA will act as Alaska’s eyes and ears on the ground in one of Europe’s most sophisticated export markets, translating local demand into sustainable loads on every Rome to Seattle flight.
The choice of partner is striking. Global GSA Group is one of Europe’s most established general sales and service agents, with a portfolio of major airline clients and deep roots in Italy’s forwarding community. Its executives have highlighted the Rome to Seattle routing as particularly attractive, pointing to the combination of high-value Italian exports and a direct connection into the U.S. Pacific Northwest and beyond.
By handing Global GSA Group a central commercial role, Alaska effectively shortcuts the years of local relationship-building that typically challenge a new entrant. Instead of slowly cultivating Italian freight forwarders one by one, the airline taps directly into an existing network of shippers, consolidators and logistics providers accustomed to working with Global GSA on long-haul capacity. That accelerates Alaska’s ramp-up and raises expectations that the belly space on its 787-9s will be profitably filled from day one.
Why Rome to Seattle Is a Cargo Sweet Spot
Italy occupies a unique niche in European exports, one that fits squarely with the capabilities of widebody belly cargo. From high fashion, luxury accessories and precision machine parts to pharmaceuticals, aircraft components and temperature-sensitive food products, the country’s outbound flows skew toward high-value, time-sensitive shipments where air freight can command a premium.
Alaska and Global GSA Group are positioning the Rome to Seattle flights as a direct express lane for exactly those commodities. Each 787-9 rotation offers substantial lower-deck capacity, and the airline’s Seattle hub opens on to a network of more than 100 destinations across North America, the Asia Pacific, the South Pacific and Latin America. For Italian forwarders, the route effectively becomes a one-stop access point to secondary markets that might otherwise require complex routings via traditional mega-hubs.
The Pacific Northwest destination is also strategically important. Seattle is a technology, aerospace and life sciences cluster with its own appetite for high-value imports, from Italian industrial components to premium food and beverage. As the home base for Alaska’s expanding long-haul network, it also provides fast connections into transpacific services to Tokyo and Seoul, and planned future routes to London and other European points. That triangulation of Europe, North America and Asia through a single cargo hub is part of what makes the Rome to Seattle link such a potent platform for growth.
From Domestic Player to Global Cargo Contender
Alaska Air Cargo has been quietly preparing for an international leap. In its own year-in-review update for 2025, the cargo division highlighted a surge in volumes and capacity as new long-haul passenger routes to Tokyo Narita and Seoul Incheon came online from Seattle. The airline reported nearly 19 million additional pounds of cargo carried year over year and a substantial increase in weekly departures across its network.
The merger and operational integration with Hawaiian Airlines added another layer of capability, providing Alaska access to widebody aircraft and a pre-existing long-haul cargo infrastructure. With a single operating certificate now in place, Alaska has begun to blend Hawaiian’s long-range expertise with its own dense West Coast and Alaska network, creating new through-routing options for freight customers.
The Rome to Seattle launch fits squarely into that strategy. By placing a 787-9 on the route and pairing it with a dedicated GSSA partner in Italy, Alaska is signaling that its step into Europe is as much about cargo as it is about passengers. It also hints at a long-term ambition to turn its historically domestic brand into a credible global cargo player, leveraging the same aircraft that underpin its international passenger expansion.
The Hidden Economics of the Partnership
What makes the Alaska and Global GSA Group tie-up so powerful is the way it aligns incentives across both sides of the Atlantic. For Alaska, partnering with a specialist GSSA reduces commercial risk on a brand-new long-haul route. Rather than building a local cargo sales force from scratch, the airline can rely on a performance-driven partner that only succeeds if it fills the aircraft’s belly capacity efficiently and consistently.
For Global GSA Group, the deal offers a fresh transatlantic product to sell into a mature Italian marketplace. Rome-based forwarders constantly seek alternative gateways and routings that can cut transit times and avoid congestion at traditional hubs. A daily or near-daily 787-9 service to a fast-growing U.S. hub, backed by a carrier intent on expanding its long-haul footprint, is a compelling addition to the portfolio.
Crucially, both partners recognize the value of network connectivity. Alaska brings not only the Rome to Seattle trunk but also a lattice of domestic and transpacific flights that can turn a single movement into a multi-leg journey across continents. Global GSA brings granular market intelligence, route-by-route demand forecasts and long-standing client relationships that can be steered onto that network. The result is a virtuous cycle of load-factor growth, yield optimization and route resilience that many new long-haul entrants struggle to achieve.
What It Means for Italian Exporters and Forwarders
For Italy’s exporting community, the partnership reshapes the way cargo can move to and through the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Freight forwarders in Rome and across Italy gain a new widebody option that bypasses the traditional northern European hubs in favor of a direct pipeline into Seattle. From there, shipments can be reconnected to secondary and tertiary markets in the western United States, Canada and across the Pacific, often with shorter end-to-end transit times.
Key verticals stand to benefit. Fashion and luxury goods shippers can take advantage of consistent belly capacity tied to a daily summer passenger service, ensuring regular uplift for seasonal collections and just-in-time retail replenishment. Pharmaceutical and healthcare exporters, increasingly reliant on robust cold-chain and time-definite services, will look closely at how Alaska and its partners structure handling, security and temperature-controlled facilities on the Rome to Seattle leg.
Industrial and machinery exporters may also find the route appealing, particularly given the Pacific Northwest’s concentration of aerospace and advanced manufacturing. With Global GSA Group actively marketing the service, forwarders can expect a tailored approach that reflects specific commodity needs, from specialized packaging requirements to tight delivery windows for project cargo.
Seattle’s Emergence as a Multicontinental Hub
Seattle has long been a prominent West Coast gateway, but Alaska’s recent announcements underscore how rapidly the airport is transforming into a true intercontinental nexus. Alongside the Rome launch, Alaska has ramped up service to Tokyo Narita and Seoul Incheon and is preparing for future long-haul additions, including new links to London and other strategic cities.
The cargo dimension amplifies that trend. As more widebody aircraft call at Seattle, lower-deck capacity increases not just on individual routes but across the entire network. That creates new possibilities for triangulated routings, such as Italian exports to Asia via Seattle or Asian electronics and components moving to southern Europe through the same hub. In that sense, the Rome flights are less an endpoint and more a building block in a multi-directional freight web.
Local stakeholders in the Seattle region have welcomed the Rome service as a milestone for both tourism and trade. For the cargo sector, the addition of Italy to the route map ties the Pacific Northwest more closely to one of Europe’s most dynamic export economies. As volumes grow, it could spur further investment in warehouse space, specialized handling facilities and digital infrastructure designed to streamline cross-continental flows.
Could This Be a Template for Future Routes?
The Rome to Seattle partnership with Global GSA Group may foreshadow how Alaska chooses to structure its cargo strategy on future intercontinental routes. Rather than managing every overseas market in-house from the outset, the airline can selectively appoint powerful regional GSSAs where local knowledge and entrenched relationships are critical to early success.
That approach allows Alaska to move quickly into new geographies, particularly where it is not yet a household name. By pairing a long-haul aircraft and a high-potential city pair with a deeply embedded sales partner on the ground, the carrier can translate strategic network moves into tangible cargo revenues far faster than a traditional organic build-out would permit.
For now, all eyes are on Rome and Seattle. As the inaugural 787-9 flights prepare for takeoff in late April, freight forwarders and shippers across Italy will be testing the new corridor, while Alaska and Global GSA fine-tune capacity allocations and service offerings. If early performance matches the ambition behind the partnership, the airline’s first European destination could quickly become a showcase of how a once-regional carrier turned a bold route decision into a powerful cargo alliance that reverberates across three continents.