Alaska Airlines announces long-term strategy

On 24 March, Alaska Airlines held its Investor Day, in which it also unveiled its long-term (growth) strategy. Part of that strategy is an updated fleet-plan, which sees the accelerated retirement of several aircraft and the addition of dedicated freighters.

By end 2023, the airline plans to have phased-out all De Havilland DHC-8-400s as well as all Airbus A320s and A321s. With this, Alaska Airlines will have a fleet consising of Boeing B737s as well as Embraer ERJ175s. Today, the airline operates 32 DHC-8-400s (operated by subsidiary Horizon Air) as well as 35 A320s and ten A321neos. The retirement of the Airbus-fleet is no surprise since Alaska Airlines has been increasing its orders for the MAX over the last year and previously said it would want to operate a single-type fleet. By 2025, Alaska Airlines plans to operate a fleet of 400 aircraft (including the regional jets operated by Horizon Air and SkyWest).

Alaska Airlines also announced it is planning to convert two of its B737-800s into freighters, with a planned re-delivery in 2023. With this duo, the airline's dedicated freighter-fleet will grow to five aircraft as it already operates three B737-700BDSFs.

Photo by Alaska Airlines.