Alaska Airlines is able to say once more that it is "proudly all Boeing."
The Seattle-based airline stated on April 20 during its first-quarter results call that it would retire its final Airbus aircraft in September.
The removal of the Airbus A321neo, or "new engine option," jets from Alaska's timetables as of September 30 was spotted by Twitter user @IshrionA and confirmed in Cirium schedules, which gave those plans official status over the weekend.
Ten Airbus A321neo aircraft are currently in Alaska's fleet. The airline once operated 72 Airbus aircraft, a mix of the A319, A320, and A321 models. However, the A319s and A320s have been decommissioned, leaving the company with just 10 A321neos.
As part of its 2016 takeover of Virgin America, Alaska acquired all of these Airbus aircraft. As part of an order that was initially placed by Virgin, Alaska received the A321neo aircraft between 2018 and 2019.
Even though previously the carrier had only flown Boeing aircraft, it was difficult for it to back out of the order, thus it took the jets.
The airline did, however, announce last year that it will streamline its fleet and retire every Airbus plane by the end of 2023.
Alaska can streamline the processes for pilot maintenance and training while also increasing operational flexibility and reaping other financial advantages by solely operating mainline Boeing aircraft. While this is going on, Horizon Air, a regional subsidiary of Alaska, will only fly Embraer E-175 aircraft.
Alaska Airlines used to be a carrier that flew only Boeing aircraft; their aircraft even sported a badge that said "proudly all Boeing" on the nose. That tagline will once again be entirely accurate in the coming months, despite the carrier's addition of MD-80 and Airbus aircraft to its mainline fleet over the years.
According to Airfleets.net, Alaska now operates 211 Boeing 737 aircraft, and it has orders for 146 brand-new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft due for delivery between 2024 and 2027.
The recently retired A321neo aircraft, which is only roughly 5 years old, will probably be used by other carriers. Although it's not yet known which carrier will pick them up, given how frequently new airplane deliveries are delayed, it wouldn't be surprising to see them acquired fairly quickly.
FACEBOOK