For the second time in as many years, Horizon Air has decided to buy Bombardier [BBD] Q400 turboprops instead of the CRJ 700.

Horizon, the regional unit of Alaska Air Group [ALK], last week placed an order for 12 74-seat turboprops in a deal valued at $294 million. In placing the order, Horizon converted seven firm CRJ 700 orders to the turboprops. The carrier will take one more 70-seat RJ next spring that is already on order. Bombardier will begin delivering the Q400s in late 2006 and continue through the first six months of 2007.

Once the order is complete, Horizon will have 30 Q400s, 20 CRJ 700s and 28 Q200s.

Horizon may replace some of its 37-seat Q200s with the larger planes.

In 2004, Horizon decided to convert one of its CRJ 700 orders to a Q400.

Horizon will be flying the Q400s on its own routes in the northwest. It flies some of its CRJ 700s as Frontier JetExpress, a feeder service into Denver for Frontier Airlines [FRNT]. A day after the Bombardier order was announced, Southwest Airlines [LUV] announced that it would begin flying into Denver. Although Frontier markets itself as a low-cost, low-fare airline, its cost structure is considerably higher than Southwest's, and thus Frontier's long- term future could be endangered, said Raymond James analyst James Parker.