When Alaska Airways acquired Hawaiian Airways in 2024, the imaginative and prescient was clear: Alaska wished to solidify its place as a bona fide international service able to transporting passengers everywhere in the world.
Simply days into 2026, it is evident that target progress stays a prime precedence.
On Wednesday, Alaska Airways introduced that it reached a deal to purchase 110 new airplanes from Boeing between now and 2035.
It’s the biggest plane order within the Seattle-based service’s historical past, and it’ll see the corporate proceed to depend on the U.S. planemaker — its Pacific Northwest neighbor — for its plane for years to return.
Alaska Airways’ splashy, new Boeing deal
Headlining the deal is Alaska Airways’ buy of 105 new Boeing 737 MAX 10 jets — Boeing’s largest 737 MAX variant that’s at the moment awaiting certification from regulators.
Alaska additionally formally agreed to buy 5 extra Boeing 787 Dreamliners, particularly opting to go together with Boeing’s largest 787-10 model of the long-haul aircraft.
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The deal possible represents a multibillion-dollar funding by Alaska Air Group, and it’ll gasoline “regular, scalable and sustained progress,” the corporate mentioned Wednesday in a press release asserting the information.
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“These planes will gasoline our enlargement to extra locations throughout the globe and guarantee our friends journey aboard the latest, most fuel-efficient and state-of-the-art plane,” Alaska Airways CEO Ben Minicucci mentioned.
As a part of the deal, Alaska additionally retains choices to buy 35 extra MAX 10 jets over the following 9 years.
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What to learn about Alaska Airways’ new planes
As soon as in Alaska’s fleet, the MAX 10 would be the service’s largest single-aisle plane, and the 787-10 Dreamliner can be its largest twin-aisle jet.
Boeing 737 MAX 10
The MAX 10 can seat between 188 and 204 passengers in a two-cabin (top notch and coach) configuration, in line with Boeing’s web site.
That can give Alaska a bit extra seating capability on its highest-demand flights over its current narrow-body jets; its Boeing 737-900 and MAX 9s can seat a complete of 178 passengers.
When will its first MAX 10 are available? That can possible hinge on how quickly Boeing lastly wins certification for the plane. The MAX 10 has been delayed as a consequence of an anti-icing concern that the planemaker has been working to repair for years.
Every of the “Large Three” legacy carriers within the U.S. — American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airways — even have excellent orders for the MAX 10.
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Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner
In the meantime, this plane deal will give Alaska Airways a complete of 17 Dreamliners because it workout routines all choices with Boeing for the wide-body aircraft.
That is on prime of Dreamliners the service already has available and within the pipeline.
In buying Hawaiian, Alaska took over Hawaiian’s small brand-new fleet of Boeing 787-9s — which sport sleek, new business-class suites — and its order e-book for extra Dreamliners.
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Now, Alaska can add the bigger 787-10 to its fleet, as has been rumored for months. This can give the airline dozens extra seats on worldwide flights out of its Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport (SEA) dwelling base.
It may additionally enable Alaska to deploy a extra premium-heavy configuration on its flagship routes — a selected functionality of the 787-10 that Boeing has touted.
“I feel with, within the case of 787-10, we’re seeing airways with a a lot larger premium format,” Darren Hulst, Boeing’s vp of business advertising and marketing, instructed TPG on the planemaker’s Renton, Washington, manufacturing facility final summer season. “It’s simply extra alternative to ship a premium product … that type of units them aside within the market.”
Alaska has 5 787-9s flying right now. It expects to function no less than 12 long-haul routes from SEA by 2030, Minicucci has repeatedly mentioned.
Backside line
At present, Alaska Air Group has 413 complete plane between its Alaska- and Hawaiian-branded fleets. It expects to develop to 475 plane by 2030 and to no less than 550 plane by 2035.
Most of the new 737 MAX jets will change growing older 737s due for retirement within the coming years, the service mentioned.
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