Last month, executives at Alaska Air (NYSE: ALK) reiterated their expectation of a quick post-pandemic demand recovery in the airline's markets. As a result, Alaska plans to boost capacity back to 2019 levels by next summer.
However, Alaska Airlines' fleet plan wasn't really consistent with management's bullish outlook. As of last month, the airline expected to have fewer planes in its fleet at the end of 2023 than it did at the beginning of 2020. That changed last week, though, as Alaska announced orders for 30 more jets from Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Embraer (NYSE: ERJ) .
Alaska Airlines ended 2019 with 332 aircraft in its fleet: 237 mainline planes and 95 regional aircraft. At that time, it planned to expand the mainline fleet by 246 jets while removing one turboprop from its regional fleet during 2020.
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Alaska Airlines Orders More Boeing 737 MAX and Embraer Jets