Alaska Airlines Adds E175s To SkyWest Fleet

Posts from me are going to be a bit lighter over the next week as I continue my dad’s round the world surprise birthday trip. As you may (or may not) know, I also have a points consulting service, whereby we help people redeem their airline miles. I have several colleagues working with me, and they’re some of the most knowledgeable and passionate people I know in this hobby. They’ve offered to pitch in and write a few posts to give me a bit more time off while I’m traveling, so hopefully you’ll enjoy the additional unique perspectives. This post is from my friend Alex, who is even more of an airline nut than I am.  — Ben

Growing up in Seattle, I remember the days when Alaska Airlines barely flew outside of the west coast. In the early 2000s, they started a few transcontinental routes like Washington National with the addition of newer 737s, but those were exceptions to the network, rather than the norm. Alaska didn’t even start flying to Hawaii until 2007, but now it seems to comprise a majority of their routes.

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Over recent years, Alaska has been filling holes in their network, like with the addition of Detroit, New Orleans, and Tampa. Alaska even added a Salt Lake City “focus hub” earlier this year. Exciting, right? 😉

Alaska 737 in Seattle 

Bye Felicia Horizon

Until 2011, Alaska’s in-house regional carrier, Horizon, operated under its own brand.

Horizon’s brand disappeared in favor of Alaska’s as part of a restructuring to bring their business model in line with the rest of the industry. Now, Alaska does all the “marketing” and pays Horizon to do all the “operating.”

This change included streamlining the Horizon fleet to just Bombardier Q400 turboprops (equivalent to a flying party bus with free beer and wine), and it allowed other regional airlines to fly under the Alaska banner, like SkyWest.

Boarding a Horizon Q400 in Seattle

SkyWest currently operates 70-seat CRJ-700s for Alaska, which I believe were the planes that Horizon actually sold to SkyWest. These operate on flights like Seattle to Long Beach or Omaha, which are too long for a Q400. Additionally, I think most of Alaska’s frequent flyers wish these CRJs had a first class cabin. All the other U.S. mainline carriers offer a first class cabin on their larger regional jets, so Alaska is lagging behind here (although, I’m sure if there were a market, they’d install it).

Expanded partnership with SkyWest

This brings me to yesterday’s announcement from Alaska – they announced new service and an expanded partnership with SkyWest.

SkyWest is purchasing seven Embraer E175 jets to fly for Alaska, which will feature 76 seats – 12 in first class and 64 in coach. 

If that’s not a healthy ratio of first class to economy seats for upgrades, then I don’t know what is.

Over 15% of the plane is first class seating. Keep in mind, the ratio of first to economy is only 8.8% on Alaska’s 737-900ERs. Definitely good news for Alaska elites looking to upgrade, although I’m pretty sure the only reason there are so many first class seats is because of Alaska’s pilot contract limiting the number of seats on express aircraft.

Alaska 737-900ER first class cabin

In addition to first class seating which includes power ports at every first class seat, the aircraft will feature ovens for hot meals (buy-on-board included), Wi-Fi, streaming entertainment, and Horizon’s legacy free beer and wine policy.

I find Embraer E-Jet aircraft to be extremely comfortable, even in back. Economy seats are wider than on most aircraft (18.5 inches wide, compared to 17 inches of width on a 737), there are no middle seats, and the ceilings are tall enough for me to stand up in, unlike in a CRJ. I might actually prefer these to 737s.

The first routes are scheduled to be the following:

While it makes me sad this is more express flying under Alaska’s portfolio, these routes wouldn’t exist without this aircraft added to the Alaska Airlines fleet.

Bottom line

While these route additions to Alaska’s network aren’t too exciting, the introduction of a new aircraft definitely is. I’m interested to see if SkyWest acquires more E175s for Alaska, and where they might be deployed.

Seven initial airplanes is not a whole lot, but I imagine more will be added in the coming months/years. With the impending retirement of Alaska’s older 737-400 fleet that flies primarily within the state of Alaska, I wonder if these aircraft might be suitable for intra-state flying on thin routes. I know cargo is a big reason flights like Anchorage to Bethel (yes, that’s a place) exist on mainline 737s.

These SkyWest additions also strengthen Alaska’s hub in Seattle, which has come under attack by Delta over the past two years. Delta wants to triple their presence in Seattle, and they’ve even added flights to markets like Sitka and Ketchikan, operated by SkyWest. Honestly, the real winner in the Alaska-Delta battle is SkyWest, seeing as so much of Delta’s new domestic service from Seattle is operated by regional carriers.

At the end of the day, this is great news. Hopefully Alaska will introduce some lucrative promotions to fill seats, like the double elite qualifying mile promotion they offered on Seattle-Detroit.

Have you flown on an Embraer E-Jet (E170/175/190/195)? If so, what did you think?