Alaska Airlines cancels all Santa Rosa flights due to wildfire

Alaska Airlines cancelled all of its scheduled service to the Santa Rosa, California airport, north of San Francisco, due to a massive wildfire nearby which has burned tens of thousands of hectares and forced 180,000 residents to flee their homes. The Seattle-based airline suspended 18 nonstop inbound and outbound flights between the city in northern California and five west-coast destinations - Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego - through Thursday, 31 October, it says in a statement on its website on 28 October. The Santa Rosa airport closed for operations on Saturday at 20:00 local time after mandatory evacuations in the area began. As of Tuesday afternoon local time, the fire had burned more than 26,300 hectares and was 5% contained. The last time the airport closed was in November 2017 during another wildfire that destroyed parts of the city. A second fire in the Los Angeles area has not disrupted flights at Los Angeles International Airport as of Tuesday afternoon.<br/>