Aeromexico is set to enter a new lease agreement for 12 more Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, following the United States Bankruptcy Court’s final order authorizing the deal. The new fleet will help the Mexican airline push through the recovery and exit its Chapter 11 process. Let’s investigate further.
What do we know about Aeromexico’s latest fleet movements?
In July, Aeromexico and Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) signed a letter of intent to lease up to 12 new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
This deal allowed Aeromexico to increase its future aircraft deliveries to 40 units at that moment. The airline had to receive 32 Boeing 737 MAX (a mix between -8 and -9 planes), four B737-800, and four B787-9 Dreamliners.
Some of these airplanes have already been delivered to the Mexican carrier, such as the first B737 MAX 9, which Simple Flying toured a few weeks ago.
Nevertheless, when we do a complete tally of Aeromexico’s future deliveries, we can see the airline has reduced, overall, its original order. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mexican airline had an agreement with Boeing to receive additional 54 new B737 MAX units. The Chapter 11 process forced Aeromexico to change that compromise and reduced it to a bit more than half.
What do we know about Aeromexico and DAE’s lease agreement?
On August 30, the US Bankruptcy Court issued its final order authorizing Aeromexico to enter into new aircraft lease agreements with DAE.
The airline will lease 12 new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. The manufacturer serial number of these planes are 60455, 60444, 61855, 60227, 43976, 62426, 62427, 43798, 43310, 60434, 60714, and 61858.
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise will deliver the first of these aircraft in October 2021, according to the filing.
Regarding the reception of these new planes, Nicolas Ferri, Aeromexico’s Chief Commercial Officer, said in a statement,
“Aeromexico continues its strategy of having the safest, state-of-the-art, efficient, and least polluting fleet. The additional new aircraft will allow us to continue boosting connectivity in our main hubs to meet our customer’s demand with the best aircraft, service, and a fare family that meets their travel needs.”
At the end of 2021’s second quarter, Aeromexico had a fleet of 118 aircraft. The Mexican carrier had 18 Boeing 787, five B737-700, 34 B737-800, ten B737 MAX 8, and four B737 MAX 9. Moreover, its regional branch, Aeromexico Connect had 47 Embraer E190.
What do we know about the new planes?
According to ch-aviation, seven of the 12 aircraft set to be delivered to Aeromexico didn’t have an original owner. They were whitetails and over two years old. Due to the 737 MAX grounding in 2019 and the COVID-19 crisis, Boeing has many white tail aircraft. Slowly, it has been finding them new owners.
The remaining five aircraft that Aeromexico will get did have a previous owner, though Dubai Aerospace never delivered them. They're currently inactive.
The Russian airline Nordstar had an agreement for two of these airplanes (MSN numbers 60455 and 60444). Finally, the other three airplanes, MSN numbers 43310, 60434, and 60714, were supposed to go to Mongolian Airlines, Comair, and FlyEgypt, according to ch-aviation.
Have you traveled onboard Aeromexico’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet? How was it? Let us know in the comments.