Vanilla

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.

pilotlyfe

So I thought Alaska’s goal was to completely get rid of the Q’s? Is that still the plan or is the 60 total (30 E175, 30 Q-400) the new plan?

Griever

Yes?

Look, they don't have a plan. The just react to market forces constantly. This is really true for all but the big three, who have enough market share to do mostly whatever they want.

The only real knowledge here is that is a good bet is that with 70 additional airbus they now have to leverage 00 and QX as much as possible to fill those extra seats. If that means keeping Q400s around for 20+ years then that's what they're going to do. At this point Delta is calling a lot of shots for them, whether they like it or not.

Flightsoffusion

They must be keeping some 400s around since they're interviewing pilots to fly it

Stinger6

"Interviewing"

cactusflyer

I think the plan has always been to keep some Q's around, but the exact number varies depending on what self-inflicted crisis Air Group is dealing with at the moment the question is asked.

Ispeakjive

Shifting all these delivery dates to keep everything "optimum"? Mainline was going to hire 400+ pilots this year, now they are stopping at 118. Is this an knee-jerk over-reaction, or a precise move? I wonder if they are shedding costs/debt and tying up loose ends to prepare for a sale.

fivebyfive

Good point. Interesting how Southwest snapped up 5 of the 24 flight slots out of Paine. Only 5 doesn’t seem practical. A buyout would give them 18. It would make more sense to move in then. Just sayin.

Flightsoffusion

Confusing?

Stinger6

Interviewing, and hiring, of Q400 FOs is happening. Training... ... ...is another story. The sim is SO backed up that the numbers on the front end "dashboard" don't begin to reflect the numbers coming out the other end to OE.

Two sim instructors resigned (not captains who got hired at majors; retired guys who didn't want to deal with the bologna) which has a ripple effect. The schedule calls for 8 sessions, then a checkride, 2 LOFT sessions, and another checkride. But somewhere south of 50% get through without extra sessions, which are unavailable.

So the whole thing is a graveyard spiraling, ripple effecting good time in which captains who could be in the sim instructing or flying support are needed more urgently on the line, and FOs that are needed on the line are sitting at home or the hotel.

So jamming more Q pilots into the top of the funnel is not an indicator of future fleet plans, is what I'm saying.