Recently, aviation fraternity witnessed that Alaska Airlines retired the Airbus A321neo fleet and has become “Proudly All Boeing” again, allowing it to move towards a single fleet of Boeing 737s.
But, where did the Airbus A321neo fleet go ? Understandably, the average age of the Airbus A321neo fleet aircraft was 5.6 years, which they had acquired in the process of Virgin Amerca acquisition.
Alaska purchased the planes from various lessors, through a lease with an option to purchase, and will now transfer them to American to have an all-Boeing fleet. The Dallas-Ft.-based airline Worth already operates a fleet of 70 A321NEOs and more than 200 A321/200s.
Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci commented,
“Alaska's last A321 revenue flight was on September 30, marking our official return to the single fleet. “We have ended our dual fleet chapter and are prepared to fully recognize the power of single fleet efficiency as we move towards 2024.”
For her part, Emily Halverson, the airline's vice president of finance, said,
"We have purchased the planes from the lessor and will then sell them to American Airlines."
Company executives say the airline's Airbus-trained pilots should "move to Boeing" by the end of the fourth quarter of the year.
Alaska also took delivery of five new 737 Max during the third quarter, while regional subsidiary Horizon Air took delivery of two additional Embraer 175s.
If we take a look on the fleet, American Airlines already operates seventy A321-200NX and has four more on order from Airbus (as well as fifty A321-200NY(XLR)s).
Worth noting, current fleet of A321neo were delivered directly from the European manufacturer. American Airlines operates a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft, with 287 A321 and 131 A319 aircraft in service.
In another news , an off-duty pilot has been charged with 83 counts of attempted murder, after he allegedly tried to crash a passenger jet during a flight on Sunday night.
Display Picture : Mark Beal
Related News......
