The plan they've stuck with the longest has been that we're keeping 30 Q's, but since we're apparently keeping a couple of extra airframes (I think they said 3) to staff some extra flying this summer, I'm not sure how long it'll take to draw down to that number.

Much of the remaining of the Q400 fleet has a lot of life left on it (probably another 10 years), and unless Alaska wants to completely give up on some of the cities like PUW, EAT, YYJ, ALW etc... where they currently have a virtual monopoly, I can't see them completely completely scrapping the Q's for at least a few years.

There have also been reports that we're (until AAG fires replaces their current QX puppets and everything changes again) actually going to get new EFB's on the Q400 fleet in a few years, so that seems to point to the airplanes hanging around a while longer.

All that said, the Q400 fleet is shrinking, so it makes zero sense for new hires to take the airplane right now, especially in a base like BOI that's stupidly top-heavy and doesn't have shiny jets to draw some of the senior captains away.