Alaska Airlines (AS, Seattle Tacoma International) has accelerated the retirement of its remaining A320s with all of them due to be phased out during the fourth quarter of 2022.
"We are committed to exiting the Airbus fleet and will begin retiring our twenty-nine A320-200s in the fourth quarter," Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett said during the quarterly earnings call.
In its half-yearly financial report, Alaska Air Group confirmed the operational retirement of all A320s would conclude by the end of 2022. The group is also sticking to its plan to retire all thirty-two DHC-8-Q400s, operated by subsidiary Horizon Air (QX, Seattle Tacoma International), during the first quarter of 2023 and all ten A321-200Ns operated by the mainline through the end of 2023. The accelerated retirement saw the Alaskan carrier take a USD221 million special charge during the first half of 2022.
The A320 Family fleet was inherited from Virgin America (San Francisco), which Alaska Airlines acquired in 2018. Those A320 and A321neo that remain in service are all leased.
The holding plans to consolidate its fleet around two families going forward, namely B737s for the mainline and E175s for Horizon Air. It currently operates eleven B737-700s, three B737-700(BDSF)s, sixty-one B737-800s, twenty-eight B737-9s, twelve B737-900s, seventy-nine B737-900ERs, and thirty owned E175s operated by Horizon Air (with 20 more on order). The mainline has ten B737-8s and forty-seven -9s due. SkyWest Airlines (OO, St. George Municipal) operates a further forty-two E175s under the Alaska SkyWest brand but which are owned by the regional airline.
