As part of its fleet strategy, Alaska Airlines (AS, Seattle Tacoma International) will prioritise the replacement of Airbus narrowbodies inherited from Virgin America (San Francisco), with decisions to be made this year, Alaska Air Group's Executive Vice President (Planning and Strategy), Shane Tackett, said during a quarterly earnings call.
"We have an opportunity to replace sixty-one A319-100 and A320 aircraft with larger gauge, more efficient assets, either B737-9s and B737-10s or A321-200neo, all of which would give us the ability to generate more revenue while lowering unit costs. The economics of upgauging over the next several years are compelling, and we're looking forward to finalizing plans to do this, it is one of our main 2020 objectives," he said.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Alaska Airlines currently operates ten A319-100s (12.3 years old on average) and fifty-one A320-200s (9.3 years). It also took over ten A321neo from Virgin America although these aircraft, with an average age of just 1.9 years, are not slated for replacement soon.
The airline underlined that while the grounding of the B737 MAX was a challenge, it did not fundamentally alter its timeline for a decision.
"Boeing's challenges with the MAX did cause us to rework the sequencing of events and some of our timing. But we're confident that over the next six to nine months, we're going to come with a good decision for Alaska. Later this quarter, we're going to start the acquisition process. We will work it through the summer, and we're confident we'll come up with an answer in the third quarter, fourth quarter of this year," Senior Vice President (Fleet, Finance, and Alliances) Nathaniel Pieper added.
The bulk of the carrier's A320 Family aircraft are leased with just ten A320-200s owned by Alaska Airlines.
Before the merger, Alaska Airlines was an all-Boeing operator. Its fleet currently includes eleven B737-700s, sixty-one B737-800s, twelve B737-900s, and seventy-nine -900(ER)s, as well as three B737-700(F)s. In contrast to the A320s, the airline owns almost all of its B737s except for ten -800s.
It also has thirty-two B737 MAX 9s and thirty A320-200neo on firm orders from the two manufacturers. The order for A320neo has been inherited from Virgin America.
Alaska Airlines originally expected three B737 MAX 9s to deliver in 2019 and a further seven in 2020.
In addition to in-house narrowbodies, Alaska Airlines also sub-contracts the operation of thirty-two E175s to SkyWest Airlines, and thirty E175s and thirty-four Dash 8-400s to Horizon Air (QX, Seattle Tacoma International).
