Alaska Airlines retires A321neos, Dash 8s for efficiency

Alaska Airlines is speeding up its transition to an all-Boeing fleet with new plans to retire the Airbus A321neo aircraft it inherited from Virgin America early. And in unexpected news, the Seattle-based carrier will also retire the De Havilland Dash 8-400s in favor of an all-Embraer E175 regional fleet. Alaska will operate a fleet of 323 737s and E175s by the end of 2023, and plans to grow to 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,” CFO Shane Tackett said earlier this month. He added that a simplified fleet could help realize $50-70m 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 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.<br/>