Regional Fleet

We plan to take delivery of 16 E175 jets this year, including three that were moved up from 2019, and take four deliveries in 2019. We'll have a total 30 E175s by the end of 2019. We have shifted three E175 deliveries from 2019 to 2021 and have an additional 30 E175 options available to exercise in the future.
At the same time, Horizon's goal is to retire Q400 aircraft from our operating fleet at a similar rate to E175 deliveries. That means by the end of 2019, Horizon plans to have a total operating fleet of 60 aircraft, which includes 30 E175s and 30 Q400s.
"These adjustments are happening across all fleet types and reflect the current economic pressures in our industry, not our operational performance, which has improved dramatically since last year," said Brooke Vatheuer, vice president of finance and planning. "Everyone should be proud of the way we've stabilized our operation and resumed growing our E175 fleet so substantially. At the same time, the last thing we want is to waste money on planes that aren't being used, so we must adjust our fleet to match the needs of our guests and our largest customer, Alaska Airlines."
SkyWest plans to deliver nine E175s this year and none in 2019, leaving them with 32 E175s by the end of 2019. They shifted delivery of three aircraft from 2018 to 2021.

Mainline fleet

Alaska will take delivery of 12 mainline jets in 2018 and nine in 2019, bringing our total fleet to 241. We've shifted eight Boeing aircraft deliveries from 2019-2020 to 2021-2022. As part of the recent fleet movements, Alaska also converted all our firm Boeing MAX8 orders to MAX9s to take advantage of the increased seating capacity of a larger jet and the opportunity to lower unit costs and increase revenue. Our total MAX firm orders remains unchanged at 32, with an additional 37 options available should we choose to take them. We also have cancelable purchase commitments for 30 Airbus A320neo that are available, and these are scheduled to deliver from 2021 through 2023.
As we communicated in April, our fleet strategy also includes matching the right plane to the right route by re-deploying Airbus to West Coast markets and moving Boeing to our trans-con flights, which traditionally have higher load factors. This adjustment helps us meet market demand and gives us the opportunity to fly more guests to locations that are slot controlled and unlikely to get additional flying. The following cross-fleeting changes go into effect on August 26.