There’s less to love at Alaska Airlines, at least for its Airbus fleet. Alaska will officially phase out its last batch of Airbus aircraft at end of September.
The previously all-Boeing carrier, took on 72 Airbus aircraft as a result of the 2016-2018 merger with Virgin America. The fleet consisted of a combination of Airbus A319s, A320s and A321neos. In late 2020, the airline announced that it would phase out its Airbus aircraft, and this was later confirmed in their Q1 2023 earnings call.
With 5 Airbus A321neos remaining in its fleet, the last flights are scheduled to take place on September 30, bringing a close to the the remains of Virgin America. If you’re looking to book the very final flight, it is expected to be AS1126 from Seattle to Los Angeles.
Given that Alaska A321neos are very young, averaging just 5 years old across the remaining frames, they have already found a new home with American Airlines according to @xJonNYC. Customers flying these birds will still see the old Alaska cabin as American has opted not to retrofit the Oasis cabins out of the box, and will be converted over time during regularly maintenance intervals.
From October, Alaska has the following aircraft in its fleet:
- 11 Boeing 737-700s
- 59 Boeing 737-800s
- 12 Boeing 737-900s
- 79 Boeing 737-900ERs
- 56 Boeing 737 MAX 9s with 24 more to be deliveries
- 15 Boeing 737 MAX 8s scheduled to be delivered
- 102 Boeing 737 MAX 10s scheduled to be delivered
Besides Alaska’s mainline fleet being all-Boeing, it’s subsidiary Horizon Air had ditched its Dash 8 Q400 fleet, leaving them with 41 Embraer E175s, with nine more set to join the fleet.
[Featured Photo: Bill Abbott/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)]
