An eagle-eyed planespotter has spied a Boeing 737 MAX 8 at a Seattle airport that is destined for Australian startup airline Bonza. The jet has Bonza livery on its rudder but LOT Polish livery on the rest of the tail. Bonza expects its first MAX in July and wants to start flying in September. So far, no aircraft have arrived in Australia. This plane was snapped in Seattle in mid-June.

Bonza MAX 8 passes through Seattle in mid-June

A post on an Australian Frequent Flyer forum took us to Annie Flodin, a historian at Boeing and a keen planespotter. Ms Flodin had photographed the MAX 8 passing through Seattle and uploaded them to her social media. Ms Flodin has kindly given Simple Flying permission to use the images.

Bonza has played coy on a firm arrival date for its first aircraft (it expects three in fairly swift succession and aims to build to eight MAXs within its first year of flying), only telling Simple Flying its first jet should touch down sometime this month. But we now know which plane, if not the first, at least to be one of the first, is going to Bonza.

The MAX 8 in question was registered as SP-LVE. The jet was a Boeing 737 MAX 8 built in Renton in 2019 and destined for LOT Polish Airlines but never taken up. The Warsaw-based airline is one of many airlines that curtailed its MAX orders because of the MAX groundings and later reduced demand owing to the pandemic. SP-LVE has since spent most of its life parked in Victorville, California.

Bonza Boeing 737 MAX 8 SP-LVE
Aside from the winglets and tail, the former LOT Polish MAX 8 is painted in plain grey. Photo: Annie Flodin via Flickr

A second life for an unwanted LOT Polish MAX 8

These days, while awaiting its Australian VH registration, the plane has a temporary "test registration" - N5515X. Checking out the MAX 8's flying history, it went up in the air periodically to shake the cobwebs off while parked. This year, the pace of flying has increased. When Annie Flodin snapped the plane, N5515X flew from Victorville (VCV) to Boeing Field/King County Airport (BFI) in Seattle. Now, the jet is heading down to San Antonio's Kelly Field (SKF). Simple Flying has asked Bonza what the plane is doing in San Antonio or whether the trip south is simply a test flight. However, we didn't receive a response to that question.

Bonza MAX 8 Landing In Seattle
The Bonza MAX 8 landing in Seattle in mid-June. Photo: Annie Flodin via Flickr

Aside from the tail and winglets, the jet is painted in plain grey. Those photos were taken a couple of weeks ago, so changes may have occurred since then. Inside the plane, LOT's MAX 8s seat 186 passengers in three cabin classes - business, premium economy, and economy. Per the standard short-haul intra-European operating model, there's little difference across the cabin classes in terms of seats. Bonza hasn't talked a lot about its cabin interiors. But they are an ultra-low-cost carrier competing on price, so you can kind of assume they'll be looking to squeeze in as many passengers as they can.

With a MAX 8 able to fly 210 passengers at its densest configuration, a 186-passenger cabin might not cut it for Bonza, which means a rejig of the cabin interior. We've asked Bonza about that as well. They cryptically said the "final touches" to the plane's interior will occur when they land in Australia.