Alaska Airlines have been busy on the quiet, and has annouced it’s buying a new fleet of Boeing 737-900ER’s to deploy on it’s routes.
The order of 2 737-800’s (due 2012) and 13 737-900ER’s (due 2013-2014) will be deployed on it’s current routes, targeting denser runs for trans-continental and mid-continental routes (US East Coast and Midwest from it’s Seattle hub in the West Coast).
With additional seats in the planes, costs go down by 6% too, carrying from 21 to 27 people. As the flight deck is common on the 737NG family, there are little switchover costs to the new aircraft, and is an “all Boeing” shop.
Should demand drop, Alaska is in a position to dump aircraft too, allowing them to be “nimble”.
The 737-900ER’s is Boeing’s answer to a “Next Gen” 757 in terms of range and capacity – and yes, from one end of the jet to the other, it’s a long way to the back…
Still, Alaska airlines continues to “Buy Local”.
