Alaska Airlines, which launched service between California and Hawai'i this week, said it will boost its commitment to the local market this spring with the addition of 14 flights a week between the two states.

The new flights announced yesterday will mean Alaska Airlines has committed 11 percent of its capacity to the Hawai'i market.

The Seattle-based carrier on Monday began service between Oakland and Kahului, Maui, with four flights a week. Yesterday it inaugurated the first of its three weekly roundtrip flights between Oakland and Kailua, Kona on the Big Island.

On March 11 Alaska Airlines said it will launch three flights a week between San Jose and Kahului. It will follow that up on March 12 with the inauguration of four-times-weekly service between San Jose and Kona. The airline also announced it will offer daily flights between Sacramento and Maui starting March 26.

The company plans to operate the flights with Boeing 737-800 aircraft with room for 16 passengers in first class and 141 in coach.

The expansion is a welcome boost after Aloha and ATA airlines shut down last year and ended their popular Oakland-Hawai'i flights, resulting in a decline of about 10 percent of the air seats to the Islands, said state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert.

Alaska's expansion shows "confidence in the visitor destination, and confidence that the market will grow, and confidence is what we need right now," Wienert said.

The spring additions will boost the number of weekly Alaska Airlines roundtrip flights to Hawai'i to 73 from 59, including 21 roundtrips from California's Bay Area and Sacramento.

Alaska Airlines has experienced rapid growth since entering the Hawai'i market in October 2007 with flights from Seattle to Honolulu and Líhu'e. The airline later added a Seattle-to-Kona flight.

In just two years, "Hawai'i has become a major part of our route network," said Steve Jarvis, Alaska's vice president of marketing, sales and customer experience.

Jarvis said the company is offering low fares and vacation packages.

The airline has introductory one-way fares of $169 between San Jose-Maui, San Jose-Kona and Sacramento-Maui, for tickets purchased by Nov. 24, 2009. It also is offering vacation packages starting at $599 to Maui and $523 to Kona, which are per person, based on adult double-occupancy, and include roundtrip airfare and hotel accommodations for three nights.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group, which together serve more than 90 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Alaska Airlines ranked "highest in customer satisfaction among traditional network carriers" in the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 and 2009 North America airline satisfaction studies.