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.

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 (65,000 acres) 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.