Boeing has delivered the first aircraft ever to wear the Malta Air livery. Ryanair took delivery of the aircraft from the American aerospace giant yesterday, marking its sixth Boeing 737 MAX arrival since the airline started to recieve the type last month.
Ryanair had been expecting to take its first Boeing 737 MAX 200 aircraft in April 2019. This was not possible in the end, as Boeing had to pause deliveries due to the type's grounding. Now, deliveries are well underway once more, and Ryanair has so far taken six aircraft in two of three Boeing 737 MAX liveries that it is expecting.
First Malta Air Boeing 737 MAX
Yesterday, the first Boeing 737 MAX 200 bound for European carrier Malta Air departed from Seattle's Boeing Field at 01:37 in the morning. Flying as FR5501, 9H-VUE made the one-way migration to Ryanair's Dublin home. After 7,278 km over nine hours, the plane arrived in Dublin at 18:36, according to the flight tracking service RadarBox.com.
According to data from ch-aviation.com, the aircraft took its first flight on June 30th, making it just 0.04 years, or in other words, 15 days old. RadarBox.com reveals that the aircraft underwent two test flights. One lasted 02h32m taking it from Renton to Boeing Field, and the other was an 02h09m round trip.
The aircraft is the first to wear the Malta Air livery, given how the Ryanair group deals with painting its aircraft. Malta Air was founded in 2019, with Ryanair giving us a taste of what its livery would look like on a CGI 737-800.
Unfortunately, unnecessary repaints of an aircraft are an unneeded expense for an ultra-low-cost carrier, meaning that the livery never actually made it to the paint shop. As new planes have to be painted anyway, it was no bother to Ryanair or Malta Air to start rolling out the livery finally.
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One of five aircraft
The aircraft is the first of five Boeing 737 MAX 200s bound for Malta Air this summer. Alongside five aircraft already delivered in the Ryanair livery, they will make up part of the ten aircraft expected by the Ryanair Group. The deliveries of the aircraft so far have been reasonably steady. However, the airline may well not take any more aircraft after this ten as it deals with its expected late summer season.
That's not to say that deliveries won't continue. Ryanair has 210 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on firm order. Over a quarter of the order, 60 to be exact, should be with the airline by the start of the next summer season. Interestingly, alongside the Ryanair and Malta Air liveries, a third will enter the mix in due course. That is the grey and yellow buzz livery.
What do you make of the new Malta Air Boeing 737 MAX? Let us know what you think and why in the comments below!