Aircraft lessor Aviation Capital Group (ACG) said it is increasing its Boeing 737 Max portfolio with an order for 12 additional 737-8 jets. As the travel market recovered, ACG needed to increase its 737-8 offering to meet airline demand for modern and sustainable operations. The order previously appeared in Boeing's order book as unidentified.
With Tuesday's announcement, ACG will expand its 737 Max order book to 34 airplanes, after an order for nine 737-8s in May 2022.
“This latest incremental 737 Max order allows ACG to offer highly fuel-efficient airplanes to our airline customers around the world,” said Mahoko Hara, ACG executive chair. “These additional 737 Max aircraft will help position ACG’s order book for a recovery in air traffic coming out of the pandemic.”
Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said the OEM is seeing strong market demand for the 737 Max family, with more than 1,000 gross orders across all models since late 2020, after a second fatal crash of the type in 2019 raised questions about the product’s viability and resulted in a worldwide grouding of the Max fleet. “I think the reboot’s occurred...over the past year-and-a-half, since the recovery,” Deal told AIN.
“We’ve had over a thousand gross orders, and this adds to it. If you do the tally of the airshow, the 100 announced yesterday, plus 20, plus these 12...it just keeps growing. I think you can check the reboot box and now we’re just into the normal Boeing versus Airbus [rivalry], continuing to compete hard for each customer’s business.”
Earlier Tuesday, AerCap added an order for five Boeing 787-9s to its fleet. Boeing claims that since 2020, airlines have opened 50 new routes with the 787.
“AerCap is the world’s largest 787 customer and we are very pleased to strengthen that position with this order for five additional aircraft,” said Peter Anderson, chief commercial officer of AerCap. “This transaction is in line with our portfolio strategy of investing in the most in-demand new technology assets and will help us continue to support our airline customers meet their sustainability commitments.” AerCap now counts 125 Boeing 787s in its portfolio or on order.
Since entering into service in 2011, the 787 family has launched more than 325 new nonstop routes around the world. The 787-9 can fly 296 passengers up to 7,565 nm (14,010 km) in a typical two-class configuration.
