Alaska Speeds up Fleet Transition
Alaska Airlines is speeding up its transition to an all-Boeing fleet with plans to retire the Airbus A321neo aircraft it inherited from Virgin America early. And in unexpected news, it will also retire the De Havilland Dash 8-400s in favor of an all-Embraer E175 regional fleet.
The Seattle-based carrier will operate a fleet of 323 737s and E175s by the end of 2023, and plans to grow to nearly 400 aircraft by the middle of the decade. The airline said the fleet simplification will help drive down costs and streamline maintenance. “The quicker we could get to a single fleet, the better,” Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett said earlier this month. He added that a simplified fleet could help realize $50-70 million in annual costs savings.
“One fleet is way simpler than two fleets to operate,” he said. The carrier also will benefit from staffing simplicity, with no need for reserve Airbus crews.
Alaska has long made clear it wanted to get rid of the 71 Airbus aircraft it gained through its 2016 acquisition of Virgin America. It removed the 31 A319s and A320s during the pandemic, and has replaced them with new Boeing 737-9s that began arriving last January. The airline will return the remaining 30 A320s it inherited from Virgin America by early 2023 at the latest. Alaska cancelled its longstanding order for 30 A320neos finally late last year.
The fate of the 10 A321neos has long been unclear. For a time, Alaska said it valued the range and capability of the A321 for certain missions, for example on flights between the West Coast and slot-constrained airports like Washington Reagan National. But it recently changed course. “I would not be surprised if we found a home for those [A321s] before the lease expiry,” Tackett said earlier in March.
Alaska has found, or is confident that it will find, a home for the jets that have leases through 2031. With the March 24 announcement, the carrier signaled it will return the aircraft to lessors up to seven years early. “The A321 is a great airplane,” Nathaniel Pieper, senior vice president of fleet and alliances, said on March 24. “There will be a pretty good market for it.”
Lessors have signaled strong demand for aircraft, particularly the A321neo that has emerged as the de facto replacement for the Boeing 757. Airbus executives recently said their backlog stretches out 10 years limiting the availability of popular jets like the A321neo in the near term.
Alaska’s deliveries of new Maxes will offset the retirements. In fact, Tackett said the carrier is net upgauging across its fleet, especially with the 189-seat 737-10 that has just one less seat than A321neos. The 150-seat A320 fleet will mostly be replaced with 178-seat 737-9s.
The regional fleet changes follow the same strategy Alaska is pursuing for its mainline operation: “simplicity,” Pieper said. Its Horizon Air subsidiary will retire its last 32 Dash 8s in 2023 with the aircraft replaced by 20 new E175s. Alaska has not specified whether Horizon or affiliate SkyWest Airlines will operate the new jets.
Alaska’s fleet changes are not limited to passenger aircraft. The airline is adding two converted Boeing 737-800 freighters, expanding its cargo fleet to five aircraft.
The airline plans to grow capacity by 1-3 percent this year compared to 2019, the low end of its January guidance. But going forward, Alaska will grow organically by 4-8 percent annually through 2025 even with its fleet changes. The majority of that growth, roughly 70 percent, will be in its home Pacific Northwest markets with the balance touching California.
— Madhu Unnikrishnan & Edward Russell
Fleet Briefs
- Airbus stole a march on Boeing when Air Canada said it would take 26 A321XLRs. The aircraft will fill a middle of the market niche for the carrier and will be configured with 182 seats, including 14 lie-flat business-class seats. The aircraft will start arriving in 2024, with deliveries continuing through 2027. The bulk of the A321XLRs will be leased, with 15 coming from Air Lease Corp. and five from AerCap. Air Canada will buy six of the 26 aircraft, and has purchase rights for an additional 14 for delivery between 2027-2030.
- Fresh out of its U.S. Chapter 11 restructuring, Aeromexico is making good on its promise to grow. The carrier has signed a lease deal with Air Lease Corp. for nine more Boeing 737 Maxes: two -8s and seven -9s with deliveries from June through August 2023. Aeromeixco previously closed a deal for eight new 737s and 787s from ALC in 2021.
- Delta Air Lines took delivery of its first of 155 Airbus A321neos on March 23. The aircraft, which is outfitted with 194 seats, flew to Atlanta that day. Delta plans to introduce the plane on flights from its Boston Logan hub in May.
- India’s Flybig has signed a letter of intent to take up to 10 De Havilland Twin Otters. The carrier plans to operate the aircraft on routes to underserved markets in India “not previously accessible by air,” the carrier said. The deal comprises five aircraft with options for five more.
- Lessor Avolon and Air Greenland are teaming up to study the eVTOL market in the semi-autonomous Danish territory. The study will examine Greenland’s infrastructure and make recommendations on the feasibility of eVTOLs as transportation. Air Greenland has committed to take an unspecified number of Vertical Aerospace VX4 eVTOLs from Avolon upon the study’s completion.