Low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle will buy 50 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft under an agreement with the US aircraft manufacturer, which includes an option on 30 other aircraft of the same type, it announced on Monday. The 50 new planes will be delivered between 2025 and 2028, around the time current aircraft lease agreements come to an end, said the company, which escaped bankruptcy filing last year. This order is good news for the Boeing 737 MAX, the American manufacturer’s flagship model, which had been grounded for twenty months following two close fatal accidents and which has been gradually returning to service since the end of 2020.
Norwegian and Boeing have also been engaged in a standoff for several years, the Norwegian carrier having launched legal proceedings against the American giant to obtain compensation following setbacks encountered with its 737 MAX and its long-haul 787 Dreamliner. The low cost company did not specify on Monday whether its new order was part of a resolution of the conflict. The deal, she stressed, remains subject to conditions which she hopes will be lifted by the end of June. Norwegian, which currently operates 61 aircraft, plans to ramp up and have 70 in operation this summer and 85 in the summer of 2023.
Weighed down by an overambitious expansion, technical problems with its fleet and the Covid-19 pandemic, the company had narrowly avoided bankruptcy last year at the cost of a vast restructuring which had notably led it to give up its intercontinental activities, to reduce its fleet and to cancel numerous orders. For Boeing, this order confirms the revival of the 737 MAX, of which the British carrier IAG, parent company of British Airways, has also just ordered 50 copies with an option on 100 others.
