Alaska Airlines announced on Tuesday it has agreed to buy an additional 23 Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets with additional options to purchase a further 15 aircraft.
Deliveries for Alaska’s new orders are scheduled to take place between 2023 and 2024, and throughout the following two years should the airline’s options be executed.
It follows an earlier announcement made in December that Alaska would drastically increase its order of 13 MAX jets to a total of 68 737-9 MAX aircraft, with options for an additional 52 planes in the future.
The airline took delivery of its first 737 MAX 9 in January this year and began revenue service on this plane on 1 March.
Its second MAX entered service on 18 March, and a further two MAX jets are due to begin revenue service this week.
The news is another win for US planemaker Boeing, which suffered throughout 2020 in light of the COVID-19 crisis as well as its recertification battle for the MAX.
The US Federal Aviation Administration lifted its 20-month grounding order on the MAX in November 2020, following a rigorous safety overhaul of the aircraft.
So far in 2021, Boeing has started strong, with strong monthly orders reported in January and February.
Further, in February, Boeing achieved a net positive in its monthly orders – i.e. orders outweighed cancellations – for the first time since November 2019.
Comparatively, European rival Airbus reported negative net orders in both January and February.
Boeing has appeared to go from strength to strength in its 737 MAX program as well, securing a number of high-profile orders in the wake of the jet’s recertification.
Just yesterday, Boeing secured a multibillion-dollar deal to sell 100 MAX 7 jets to Southwest Airlines, with options for 155 more.
Earlier this month, United Airlines announced the order of 25 new Boeing 737 MAX jets, as well as its decision to move forward the delivery of 40 of its existing MAX orders to 2022, and five to 2023.
Meanwhile, European budget giant Ryanair was among the first to announce a major order for 75 new MAX planes, in a deal worth over $9 billion, just weeks after US recertification.
