Oct 11, 2017, 11:39 am
Last edit by: isaacchambers
All Airbus operations have now ended with Alaska Airlines.
This Wiki will be updated periodically with status of former frames with new owners or sadly scrapped.
Summary of Reconfiguration Project: (see below for specific breakdown by aircraft tail number)
This Wiki will be updated periodically with status of former frames with new owners or sadly scrapped.
Summary of Reconfiguration Project: (see below for specific breakdown by aircraft tail number)
- 319 - None were reconfigured due to pandemic and subsequent fleet withdrawal. All were scrapped / transferred as of June 17, 2022.
- 320 - All but 7 aircraft were reconfigured. [F8W12Y126 -> F12W24Y114], all were withdrawn from the fleet as of January 10, 2023.
- 321neo - All were reconfigured (7 total, 3 delivered in the new interior from Airbus, completed as of January 3, 2020). [F8W18Y159 -> F16W24Y150], all were withdrawn from the fleet as of September 30 2023,.
- All aircraft were repainted into AS livery being complete on June 2, 2019.
Legend:
Bold indicates aircraft has been reconfigured
Airbus A319 - ALL TRANSFERRED/SCRAPPED
N521VA 521 (let there be flight) [MZJ 09/18/21 - scrapped]
N522VA 522 (the 1-year old virgin) [MZJ 10/28/21 - scrapped, you can purchase planetags of this aircraft]
N523VA 523 (contents may be under pressure) [MZJ 03/08/2022 - scrapped]
N524VA 524 (dark horse) [MCI 6/9/2022 - scrapped]
N525VA 525 (virgin & tonic) [P08 - 3/17/2022 - scrapped]
N526VA 526 (jane) [P08 - 12/13/2022 - scrapped]
N527VA 527 (tubular belle) [P08 - 06/27/2023 - scrapped]]
N528VA 528 (fog cutter) [ transferred to Braathens Interantional Airways SE-RGC]
N529VA 529 (moodlights, camera, action) [P08 - 10/21/2022 - scrapped]
N530VA 530 (gogo dancer) [MCI 6/17/2022 - scrapped]
Airbus A320 - [12 - 320s stored/awaiting to be transferred to other operators]
N361VA 361 (jersey girl) [stored GSO - 1/11/2023]
N362VA 362 (spotifly) [stored OAK 7/29, sold to ALC Feb 2021, ferried to PAE 04/29/22, transferred to Allegiant]
N363VA 363 (sky surfer) [stored OAK 8/6, sold to ALC Feb 2021, transferred to Allegiant]
N364VA 364 (lady boss) [stored GSO 4/28/2022, transferred to Allegiant]
N365VA 365 (airbnb force one) [stored GSO 3/21, sold to ALC Feb 2021, transferred to Allegiant]
N621VA 621 (air colbert) [returned to lessor GSO 11/20 - to Volotea Airlines as EC-NNZ 1/21]
N622VA 622 (california dreaming)[stored GSO 7/8 - Lease return to VCV 3/8/21 - to Allegiant 3/23/21]
Bold indicates aircraft has been reconfigured
Airbus A319 - ALL TRANSFERRED/SCRAPPED
Airbus A320 - [12 - 320s stored/awaiting to be transferred to other operators]
N629VA 629 (midnight ride) [stored AMA, 12/27/2023]
Airbus A320 ETOPS - All Transferred to Allegiant
Airbus A321NEO - All Transferred to American Airlines
Airbus A319/20/21N Reconfiguration/Retirements Tracking Thread
Mar 22, 2019, 7:24 pm
#362
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 116
Mar 22, 2019, 8:21 pm
#363
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: US West Coast
Programs: Alaska 100K, Hyatt Gl, Marriott Ti/LTP
Posts: 353
Yeah, I agree that that is odd/interesting. I have no inside info here, but but that it has to do with where they have crew and where they need them to be at the end of their trip.
Mar 22, 2019, 8:54 pm
#364
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: AS MVP Gold / Marriott Bonvoy(age) Titanium Elite, IHG Platinum, WN A+/CP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 337
I suspect that they are ferrying another aircraft to GSO tomorrow morning. Turning back to fly 921 back to SFO. Then another crew for in and out of VCV. But who knows. We will know more tomorrow I guess. I am supposed to be on a 321 next month. I’m hoping to fly a reconfigured aircraft finally to test it out. But if I get a legacy VX. I’ll be happy too.
Mar 22, 2019, 9:39 pm
#366
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: AS MVP Gold / Marriott Bonvoy(age) Titanium Elite, IHG Platinum, WN A+/CP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 337
Mar 22, 2019, 9:51 pm
#368
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: AS MVP Gold / Marriott Bonvoy(age) Titanium Elite, IHG Platinum, WN A+/CP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 337
if we only have 2 birds in for mods right now; the AS "early 2020" timeline is clearly not feasible. A this pace of 2-3 per month; it will take till early 2022 to complete the modifications.
Mar 23, 2019, 9:10 am
#371
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: AS MVP Gold / Marriott Bonvoy(age) Titanium Elite, IHG Platinum, WN A+/CP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 337
. (I still say they should leave them as is as most will be returned to lessors in the coming 5-7 years. Don’t waste the money and they actually look ok with the red system updates).
Mar 23, 2019, 10:35 am
#372
Join Date: May 2003
Location: SFO, mostly
Posts: 2,204
now that only 2 Airbus is confirmed in for the updated interior....this seems to be happening at a glacial pace. I doubt the summer may bring a speed up in cabin mods since summer is generally a high demand....perhaps a big surge in the fall schedule. But with no maxes coming as scheduled for the time being....anyone who likes the VX interiors(like me) will be pretty happy for a while. . (I still say they should leave them as is as most will be returned to lessors in the coming 5-7 years. Don’t waste the money and they actually look ok with the red system updates).
. (I still say they should leave them as is as most will be returned to lessors in the coming 5-7 years. Don’t waste the money and they actually look ok with the red system updates).Last edited by sltlyamusd; Mar 23, 2019 at 10:51 am
Mar 23, 2019, 11:16 am
#373
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: AS MVP Gold / Marriott Bonvoy(age) Titanium Elite, IHG Platinum, WN A+/CP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 337
I think their stated goal is to reconfigure 4 airplanes per month. But as you mentioned, if only 1 A321Neo and 2 A320 are in service with the new interior, and 2 are currently undergoing conversion, an early 2020 completion timeline seems very optimistic! And if the Max doesn't go into service on-time this summer, that will probably cause Alaska to mobilize any spare airframes and further slowdown the pace of interior mods. I agree with you--if Alaska needs extra lift, why would they even bother with the expense and one month downtime of installing a new interior on A320s that might be returned to their lessors soon? Most A320s already have 149 seats, so they only gain one seat by the reconfiguration (albeit, in a better F to Y+ to Y ratio). They could just do a quick cabin refresh (reupholster/deep clean the seats as needed, install blue moodlighting and install satellite WIFI) and call it good enough. The A321Neos I can understand putting in the new interior since they are pretty new aircraft and Alaska may choose to keep them in the fleet.
Mar 23, 2019, 1:08 pm
#374
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 116
I don’t see why Alaska is taking so long to reconfigure their Airbus aircraft. As of right now, all but one of the 737-700 airplanes (obviously excluding the three freighters) will have the new interior, with N644AS currently undergoing refits. And considering all the 737-700s fly mainly intra-Alaska routes (including the Timbers plane, which almost always was parked at a gate in PDX until Alaska relocated the fleet), it’s not like most of us will experience the new interior on a Boeing anytime soon (I will during the summer more than likely, as I’ll be flying to Ketchican fron Portland)
This one really doesn’t make sense to me, but if Alaska is spending all of this money to repaint and reconfigure all the Airbuses, then why would they return most of these aircraft to their lessors rather early after investing so much into them. It just doesn’t make sense to me, especially since the 737 MAX is still grounded and likely won’t be ungrounded by the time Alaska takes delivery of the jets in Q2. It just doesn’t make sense to me to invest so much into a fleet where you don’t plan on keeping most of the aircraft in that fleet for the long run. We still have no word on whether the A320neo jets are going to join the fleet or not.
This one really doesn’t make sense to me, but if Alaska is spending all of this money to repaint and reconfigure all the Airbuses, then why would they return most of these aircraft to their lessors rather early after investing so much into them. It just doesn’t make sense to me, especially since the 737 MAX is still grounded and likely won’t be ungrounded by the time Alaska takes delivery of the jets in Q2. It just doesn’t make sense to me to invest so much into a fleet where you don’t plan on keeping most of the aircraft in that fleet for the long run. We still have no word on whether the A320neo jets are going to join the fleet or not.
Mar 23, 2019, 4:46 pm
#375
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 218
A few things may be at play.
- They haven’t got into a optimum operating rhythm yet.
- Load demand of passengers higher than anticipated.
- The project timeline too ambitious (always the case).
- Might be negotiating newer planes and ditching some the ones planned for a reconfiguration.
Hope someone wiser than me can fill our blanks 😊.