An Alaska Airlines employee asked this question about Horizon Air's future fleet plans, and the answer by Pat Zachwieja, vice president, Marketing and Planning, was posted on alaskasworld.com today.
I've heard that Horizon Air is looking to add the EMB190 aircraft to its fleet. How does this aircraft fit into the plan?
Pat Zachwieja:Horizon is indeed looking at the EMB190 aircraft, as well as the CRJ-900 and other aircraft that may be candidates for growth aircraft in support of our long-term Alaska Air Group strategic plan.
The Alaska and Horizon planning teams work jointly in this planning process, and we make it our business to be up on the details of all aircraft types for this purpose. As a result, we're continually in the loop with (and being pitched by) all aircraft manufacturers, including Embraer. However, that said, we're still quite a ways from making a decision on this, or any other type of new aircraft.
Fleet and market planning for Air Group is a collaborative process between Alaska and Horizon and an extension of the "harmonization" initiatives that have proved fruitful for both companies. Recommendations stem from a thorough analysis of many things, including current fleet compositions, existing market performance and future market opportunity, competitive and economic assumptions, etc. From there, the planning teams further refine the fleet plans in an effort to identify what we'll need that we currently don't have if we're to capitalize on the opportunities.
During this stage, the planning groups are looking to match each market opportunity to the optimal aircraft/schedule solution and also to determine if Alaska or Horizon have the right aircraft in the fleet, or not. Over the years, this process has led us to consider adding 737-800s to the Alaska fleet and more Q400s to the Horizon fleet.
We will continue to evaluate new categories of airplanes as market and competitive conditions determine. Our goal, which we've remained consistent with, is to make fleet decisions that provide long-term profitable growth for both companies, and not to grow one company at the expense of the other.
