Alaska Airlines has notably accelerated the retirement process of the remaining Airbus A320-200s in its fleet. All remaining A320s are to be phased out during 2022’s fourth quarter.
All good things must come to an end
Major U.S carrier Alaska Airlines has made it clear that they are ready to discard its Airbus fleet by accelerating the retirement of its remaining A320-200s.
In a quarterly earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett said that the Washington-based carrier is “committed to exiting the Airbus fleet and will begin retiring our twenty-nine A320-200s” in the fourth financial quarter.
In its half-yearly financial report, the Alaska Air Group confirmed that the operational retirement of all of its A320s will conclude by the end of this year.
The Oneworld alliance airline also wishes to retire all 32 of its DHC-8-Q400s, also known as the Bombardier Q400. All 32 of the Bombardier aircraft are currently operated by subsidiary Horizon Air but will be retired from active service by the first quarter of 2023.
But it doesn’t stop there. Alaska also wishes to retire all ten A321-200Ns operated by the mainline carrier by the end of 2023.
By the time all the named aircraft are retired, Alaska Air Group will own a fleet that exclusively consists of Boeing 737s and the Embraer 175. Currently, the group owns a total of 194 B737s and 72 Embraer 175s. The E175s will be operated by subsidiary Horizon Air.
Alaska’s fleet
Alaska welcomed nine B737-9 MAX aircraft to its fleet over the second quarter, bringing the total of B737-9 MAX in their mainline fleet to 28. It has a total of 79 B737-900ERs, 12 B737-900s, 61 B737-800s, and 3 B737-700Fs for freighter operations. Clearly, North America’s 6th largest airline loves itself a B737.
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