Alaska Airlines Is Retrofitting More Than 200 Planes

Alaska Airlines is upgrading itself.

The carrier has announced plans to retrofit more than 200 of its planes so that it can add more premium seating.

That includes 218 jets that are part of the Boeing-made 737 family. Alaska is one of Boeing’s biggest customers.

The move is so Alaska Airlines can keep pace with larger carriers. It will be adding 1.3 million premium seats annually. Some retrofitted planes will have more premium seating in first class and have extra legroom.

That also means more revenue to an airline that is already selling more than 70 percent of its first-class seats.

But the added premium seating will not come at the expense of current seating, which has led to speculation about where it will come from and whether there will be a lack of legroom in current seats.

Alaska Airlines has said that the refurbishment is in response to customer demand for more premium seating.

The airline is slowly overcoming a January incident in which a door panel fell off a jet mid-flight.

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