Alaska Air Group has announced it will expand its fleet by 30 aircraft, after securing deals with Boeing and Embraer, as the airline prepares to ramp up operations for a post-COVID spike in travel demand.
The airline continues to bolster its 737 MAX order, now announcing it has ordered an additional 13 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft, as well as 17 Embraer E-175 regional jets.
The carrier expects to take delivery of the first nine of its 13 MAX jets in 2023, and the remaining four the following year.
Meanwhile, Alaska Air said it expects to see deliveries of its 17 Embraer jets throughout 2022 and 2023.
“Alaska expects domestic travel to return to pre-COVID levels by the summer of 2022, which will require more aircraft across Air Group,” the company said in a statement.
In the deal with Boeing, Alaska is partially exercising its purchase options made during a previously announced order for 23 MAX jets earlier in the year.
Alaska Airlines announced in March it has agreed to buy an additional 23 Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets with additional options to purchase a further 15 aircraft.
This followed an even earlier announcement, made in December, that Alaska would drastically increase its order of 13 MAX jets to a total of 68 737-9 MAX aircraft, with options for an additional 52 planes in the future.
The airline took delivery of its first 737 MAX 9 in January this year and began revenue service on this plane on 1 March.
